Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Prataprao Bhosale, who returned from Delhi at Mumbai on Sunday night, finalised five candidates in the midnight. Bhavani Peth segment has been allotted to Republican Party of India faction led by Prakash Ambedkar.

The long suspense over Assembly candidates came to an end when the candidates were officially communicated about the decision during the early in the morning today. The four Congress candidates are Chandrakant Chhajed (Bopodi), Balasaheb Shivarkar (Pune Cantonment), Sanjay Balgude (Kasba Peth) and Vandana Chavan (Shivajinagar). City Congres chief Mohan Joshi's candidature had already been cleared on Sunday night.

The loyalist camp, led by veteran leader V N Gadgil, vehemently opposed the earlier list, which was dominated by Kalmadi supporters. Bowing to the pressure from this camp, party highcommand made two major changes in the list at the eleventh hour. Former mayor Kamal Vyawhare was dropped while City Youth Congress president Sanjay Balgude was given nomination from Kasba Peth.

While Kalmadi faction could manage to get prestigious Lok Sabha nomination and an assembly ticket, veteran leader V N Gadgil failed to accommodate any of his supporter. Gadgil was pressing for his son Anant for Lok Sabha and Suresh Shewale (Bopodi), Prakash Dhere (Bhavani Peth) and Shalinitai Buddhivant (Parvati).

However, none of them could get nominated.

The Kalmadi camp sought to undermine the issue arguing that he had concentrated mainly on prestigious Lok Sabha nomination. They maintain that Kalmadi had to accept few adjustments if he had brought Lok Sabha ticket for Mohan Joshi.

The party leaders were also looking for a strong candidate for Shivajinagar since Anil Bhosale, whose candidature was almost certain, had conveyed his inability to contest the election if Mohan Joshi was selected for Lok Sabha. MPCC chief Prataprao Bhosale tried to persuade Anil Bhosale but he remained firm.

Party leaders then finalised the name of former mayor Vandana Chavan, who was a strong aspirant for Lok Sabha. The party sources said that former mayor was also reluctant to fight the Assembly election. She, however, decided to enter into fray by late in the evening after holding discussions with her colleagues.

The Congress leaders see the list of assembly candidates as a setback to Suresh Kalmadi since he could manage to get nominated only one of his supporter - Chandrakant Chhajed (Bopodi). All the remaining three candidates - Balasaheb Shivarkar, Vandana Chavan and Sanjay Balgude are from the loyalist camp.

Congress workers from Bhavani Peth also faxed a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, demanding that party should give up Bopodi segment to RPI instead of Bhavani Peth. They have also threatened to start indefinite fast if their demand was not accepted.

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha candidate Mohan Joshi and assembly candidates Haji Nadaf and Balasaheb Shivarkar filed their nomination papers immediately after announcement by the party. Chandrakant Chhajed, Vandana Chavan and Sanjay Balgude will file their papers tomorrow.

Bagwe, Mankar rebel
The Congress seems to have learnt a few lessons from Bharatiya Janata Party when it abruptly cancelled party nomination of Ramesh Bagwe from Parvati constituency. Bagwe's name was officially announced early morning and he also filed nomination papers immediately in the noon. The news, however, came in the evening that MPCC had cancelled his nomination. Bagwe's nomination was strongly supported by Suresh Kalmadi.

Irked Bagwe called on party president Sonia Gandhi when she was at Lohegaon airport for a brief period while on her way to Bangalore. He was also accompanied by his wife.Bagwe reportedly told Gandhi that few vested interests in the party had launched false propaganda against him. He also told her that he had mobililsed a big crowd for her public rally at Bhor. Sonia gave a patient hearing to Bagwe but did not remark.

Party sources said Bagwe's opponents drew attention of party leaders to his provious police record because of which he was dropped. The sources said Congress will now field former MLA Sharad Ranpise from Parvati constituency. Bagwe was not available to know whether he would be in the fray even after denial of ticket by Congress. The party sources said that Bagwe and Suresh Kalmadi were desperately trying to contact party leaders in Delhi.

Meanwhile in another development, senior party leader Prakash Dhere is expected to revolt against party decision to allot Bhavani Peth segment to Republican Party of India. The sources close to Dhere said he would file his nomination papers tomorrow. Dhere is also said to be in touch with NCP president Sharad Pawar. Even if NCP has announced candidature of former mayor Ulhas Dhole-Patil from the constituency, NCP leaders do not rule out possibility of Dhere's candidature at the eleventh hour.

Meanwhile, announcement of Vandana Chavan's name angered the supporters of corporator Deepak Mankar, who was also in the race from Shivajinagar. About 500 supporters of Mankar, a strong Kalmadi supporters gathered at Congress Bhavan and raised the slogans. They have undertaken indefinite dharna at Congress Bhavan. The Mankar supoprters were demanding that he should be nominated from Shivajinagr.