Mumbai: After BJP veteran Eknath Khadse, another party leader and former Maharashtra minister Ram Shinde has expressed his disappointment over not getting nomination for the May 21 Legislative Council elections.
The BJP has fielded four candidates- Ramesh Karad, Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil- for the polls.
With nine candidates remaining in the fray for as many number of seats, their election is now just a formality.
Ram Shinde had lost the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly seat to his NCP rival Rohit Pawar in November last year.
He had recently expressed his willingness for the upper house of the state legislature, but his name did not appear in the final list.
In a last minute twist on Tuesday, the BJP had asked Dr Ajit Gopchade to withdraw his papers for Ramesh Karad, who hails from Latur. Karad had already filed his nomination papers.
Karad is said to have close associations with former BJP minister Pankaja Munde, who had lost her election to Parli seat in the last assembly polls.
In his Facebook post on Wednesday, Ram Shinde said, “BJP state president Chandrakant Patil had said that those who did not get nomination for MLC will understand and learn something from it.”
“I think Panjakatai Munde did her study well and Ramesh Karad made his way to final four candidates of the party. I and some others could not do such study,” Shinde said sarcastically.
Gopichand Padalkar had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha seat as a candidate of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) against BJP’ Sanjay Patil from Sangli. At that time, he had criticised the BJP heavily. However, he was later given ticket by the BJP against NCP leader Ajit Pawar to contest the last year’s assembly election from Baramati constituency.
However, he suffered a humiliating defeat and lost his deposit.
Khadse had earlier expressed his disappointment over not getting nomination for the Council polls. He alleged that he felt cheated by his party colleagues for not getting nomination to represent the party in the upper house.
He had also said questioned BJP state unit chief Chandrakant’s contribution in expanding the party.
However, Patil debunked Khadse’s claims that the party cold-shouldered him and failed to recognise his services for its growth.
“When all the political positions were given to Khadse, how can he now blame the party for not considering his name for MLC post. A constitutional post such as MLA or MLC cannot be the only aim in politics. He can provide some guidance to the next generation in the party,” Patil had said.