The swapping of Raigad Lok Sabha seat with the NCP has not gone down well with the Congress' cadre in the district, which says the decision will have serious repercussions on the party's prospects in the Konkan region.
"Raigad has traditionally been a Congress seat and the barometer of a party's strength is not win or loss, but the per centage of vote share which is substantial," party leaders, who did not wish to be named, said.
"If the criteria to give away the seat was that we could not win it for the last three elections, then there are many others as well. Should we give away all these seats to our ally?" they asked.
According to them, each seat has different aspects and Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) has been a dominant force in Raigad district for the past 50 years, but the Congress presence has never been eroded. "PWP has held the erstwhile Kolaba Lok Sabha seat for two terms each and A R Antulay for four terms," they said.
"It is wrong to say that Congress could not defeat Anant Gite in Raigad. Gite has represented the Raigad seat only in 2009 elections after delimitation. He is from Ratnagiri and the Congress is weak there.
"Gite contested from Raigad for the first time in 2009 as after delimitation, the district was divided. Alibaug and Pen are with PWP and only Shrivardhan is with NCP," they added.
They said political situation is different in every election and maintained that despite the resentment, local Congress unit will not work against NCP candidate Sunil Tatkare.
"It remains to be seen how he will respond to the Congress workers in the assembly elections later this year," they said. In 2009, Antulay polled over 34 per cent votes against Gite's 53.89 per cent.
Congress candidates Ravishet Patil, who lost to PWP's Dhairyasheel Patil in Pen, polled 53,141 votes and in Alibaug, Madhukar Thakur, who lost to PWP's Meenakshi Patil, bagged 69,025 votes.
Tatkare won the Shrivardhan assembly constituency by a margin of 10,000 votes. From 64 Zilla Parishad members in the district, 29 are with the NCP and four with the Congress. In the 128-member strong Panchayat Samiti, 54 are with the NCP and 19 with the Congress. Out of 138 municipal council members, 56 are from the NCP and 27 from the Congress.
Meanwhile, when contacted, Antulay told PTI, "In the evening of my life, I have to see my home being given away to someone else. After delimitation, Raigad district was divided into Mawal and Raigad parliamentary constituencies and the Congress has given away both to the NCP."
He said as Chief Minister, he renamed Kolaba district as Raigad. "Congress (I) was born in my house in Delhi and Srivardhan has been my assembly segment, which was given to NCP in 2009 without even asking me. You can have enmity with me, but what is shocking is the decisions were taken with an intention of damaging the party," he lamented.
Antulay said in Raigad, Congress has no MLAs while in Mawal, there was lone Prashant Thakur from Panvel Assembly constituency. When asked whether he is supporting PWP candidates Laxman Jagtap (Mawal) and Ramesh Kadam (Raigad), Antulay said, "Then what do I do?..they came to my house and I have blessed them. I have appealed to people to vote for these two candidates."
He said he has refused to meet Tatkare. "Meeting him would be announcing my support, which I cannot," he added. The leader said defeat and success in elections is a different issue, but existence of a party is most important.
A senior State Congress leader over Antulay's decision said swapping of Raigad had to be done because the party wanted Hingoli which is NCP quota for Indian Youth Congress president Rajiv Satav. "NCP wanted Raigad as it felt it had a winnable candidate," Congress sources said.
Comments
0 comment