PUNE, Feb 6: Shiv Sena's Pune district unit chief Nana Balkawade filed his nomination as the official party candidate from the Khed Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday, setting at rest the speculation that the disgruntled local Congress leader Anantrao Thopte or the former Janata Dal MP-turned-Senaman Kisanrao Bankhele would be offered the party ticket.The delay in announcing the party's candidate from Khed constituency had led to conjectures that Anantrao Thopte, senior Congress leader and MLA from Bhor Assembly segment, would enter Sena. Local Senamen had even threatened to oppose Thopte's entry into the party.
Thopte had recently clarified that he had no intentions to quit the Congress and contest the Lok Sabha elections on the Sena ticket. However, when the Congress decided to field Ashok Mohol from Khed, the possibility of Thopte's entry into Sena was once again discussed in the political circles here.
Bankhele who had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Khed on a Sena ticketwas pressing for renomination. However, at the last minute, the party favoured its district unit chief who had also served as the leader of several Sena sponsored labour unions in the past.
District Guardian Minister Leeladhar Dake, senior Sena leaders including Ram Bhankal, Kaka Vadke, Rajan Shirodkar, MLA Shashikant Sutar, MLA Suryakant Lonkar and BJP's city unit chief Pradeep Ravat and MLA Girish Bapat accompanied Balkawade when he filed his nominations on the last day. In all 11 candidates each have filed the nominations from Khed and Baramati constituency while 28 candidates have filed nominations from Pune Lok Sabha constituency. How many of these would remain in fray will become clear on the February 7, the last day of withdrawals. Prominent among the 28 candidates who filed their nominations for Pune constituency include Chandrakant Thorat of Bahujan Samaj Party, Col (retd) Suresh Patil of the Maharashtra Military Foundation and Nathuram Kondhre of Janata Dal.
Abbas Shaikh of Janata Dal andBhujangrao Bedekar of Republican Party of India Presidium, were among the six candidates who filed their nominations from Baramati constituency.
Meanwhile, activists of Patit Pawan Sanghatana (PPS) would not be participating in the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine's election campaign in Raigad to protest the alleged involvement of local Sena MLA Devendra Satam in the murder of PPS Raigad unit chief Arun Airey last year.
Disclosing this to media persons yesterday, PPS State chief Sopanrao Deshmukh, however, pledged support of his organisation to all saffron alliance candidates in the rest 47 Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra.
In Pune, the PPS was supporting Suresh Kalmadi with a view to ensure that BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee becomes the next prime minister, according to State general secretary Nitin Sontakke.
However, the co-operation being extended to Kalmadi was strictly limited to the Lok Sabha election.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
