PUNE: Disgruntled leaders of the Congress and NCP rebelled against their parties over denial of tickets to contest the coming state assembly polls on Thursday. Rebellion was also seen in the Shiv-Sena-BJP saffron alliance, too, but that was not considered as significant as the revolt in the Congress-NCP camps.
Two important events occurred Thursday afternoon. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan attempted to stop the revolt spearheaded by Minister of State for Finance Sunil Deshmukh after being denied ticket from Amravati.
The bigger jolt was given to the NCP when its national spokesperson and former state Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar announced he was leaving the NCP.
Speaking to the media here, Chavan warned Deshmukh that the Congress party would initiate action against him if he rebelled and contested the Assembly polls as an independent against the official party candidate Rajendra Shekhawat, son of Indian President Pratibha Patil.
The Congress party dropped Deshmukh and gave Shekhawat the ticket from the Amravati assembly constituency, which had earlier elected Deshmukh twice. After being denied the ticket, Deshmukh accused the president of pressuring the party hierarchy to nominate her son. Deshmukh threatened to contest as an independent if the decision was not reversed. He said that he is firm to file his nomination papers as independent candidate on Friday.
Meanwhile, an angry Khanvilkar alleged that the party had ignored the party workers demand from Kolhapur to give him ticket and said he was forced to bid good-bye to the NCP.
Khanvilkar also claimed that the NCP was finished in Kolhapur, and the party would be humiliated in western Maharashtra. He also announced that he would contest the assembly polls from Kolhapur as an independent and give a tough fight to the NCP.
In yet another serious blow to the NCP, senior NCP leader and minister of state Pravin Prataprao Bhosale also quit the party after being denied ticket to contest the assembly polls from Sawantwadi in Konkan region. Like all the rebels, he too stated that he would contest the polls as an independent candidate.
