MUMBAI, Dec 28: Almost at the twelfth hour, the tantalising prospect of cross voting on the unexpected side of the divide appears to be emerging with reports that Shiv Sena's Sudhir Joshi may not clean up 76 winning votes at Monday's elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council from the local self-government constituencies. Amid suggestions that there has been a lot of ``corporator raiding'' across the board, there is likely to be a tense face-off between the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and the Congress-led fight for the Samajwadi Party's candidate, Hussain Dalwai from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) constituency.Given Sena supremo's clear directive that all the first preference votes have to rally behind Joshi, his was supposed to be a virtual walk-over.
But. Dalwai has now added a new dimension to the tussle by claiming that the rassi khech (``tug of war'') is not between him and the Sena's second candidate Kanhaiyalal Gidwani but between the two Sena candidates
themselves. ``Unless a lot of surplus first preference votes are allotted to Joshi, he is now in danger of losing the election,'' Dalwai told The Indian Express.
This is a strange conclusion considering that even the Congress, which is certain of making a clean sweep of the remaining seven seats going to polls tomorrow, has consciously left Joshi's seat uncontested on the grounds that he has an assured win with a comfortable margin from the BMC. Dalwai, however, insists that a premium has been put by the Sena on winning the seats. ``And we have protected our corporators very well this time round (They have been whisked off to an unknown destination and will be `released' only at the polling booths on Monday). So no one is available for undue influence. However, when money comes out everybody runs after it. And Sena corporators have begun to feel that when so much cash is on display why should they themselves not be the beneficiaries?''
The question therefore is whether the Sena corporators will
abide by the party diktat or fall prey to the lure of the lucre, say political observers. Hussian says the two Sena candidates could thus cannibalise each other at tomorrow's elections.
Moreover, he is certain that at least four of Joshi's first preference votes have already been wooed away though he will not reveal the identity of the romancer.
However, it is Gidwani's contention that Dalwai has just 21 votes against his 56 as no Congressman has signed on the latter's nomination former to indicate support of the party to his candidature. ``He has to be, therefore, treated as merely a SP candidate and Congressmen should be considered free to vote for the man of their choice.''
Under the circumstances, he says, Dalwai would need 56 more votes to make it to the legislature while he needs only 21. In the numbers game, however, Gidwani is counting on the support of Independents to take his tally to six short of the winning figure of 77.
Dalwai, on the other hand, would still be six short with all the
Congress votes in his basket, he says.
The deadlock then is likely to be broken only with raiding into other accounts. It is here that the Sena is said to face danger of having its own bank broken as powerful forces are at play to ensure Dalwai's victory.
Observers are quick to note that both Sharad Pawar and Amar Singh have thrown their weight behind Dalwai. Gidwani, on the other hand states, that the candidate rather than the party affiliations would be of more importance to the votting corporators and this is is likely to go in his own favour.
``The corporators, no matter to which side they belong, will have to safeguard their own interests. They are looking to see who can best represent them in the council as well as in terms of access to the government.''
Though Gidwani does not state as much, the Sena clearly believes that he has the better chance if this were to be the criteria for the election of the second legislators from the BMC. Dalwai, however, has the last word, ``If Gidwani's figures
add up, so do mine. Then Joshi had better watch out : I am willing to bet he will get less than the winning 76!'' The Congress, meanwhile, insists it will have a easy victory on five of the six seats it is contesting on its own. It has already secured one seat, from the Pune Municipal Corporation, unopposed. The seat where the party envisages a fight with the Sena-BJP alliance is Nagpur where the ruling parties have a majority in the LSGs. ``It will be tough but we will still manage to win it,'' says Ranjit Deshmukh, Maharashtra Praddesh Congress Committee president.
The victory is essential to maintain the balance of power in the State Legislative Council where the Congress has a majority and has been routinely stalling bills since the Sena-BJP came to power. The Congress held all but one of the nine seats that are going to polls tomorrow. Of these the Sena is contesting Ahmednagar and Akola-Buldhana while the BJP has put up canddidates for Nagpur, Solapur and Dhule. Kolhapur has been left uncontested by
both.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
