Nagpur, 31 Dec

(HS): Discontent among senior and established leader was evident as many

aspirants who were dedicated workers of their party, were refused tickets for

the municipal elections. The discontent was expressed by senior party workers

in many districts in Maharashtra. Some of them reacted violently, while many

others were emotionally, and some others revolted and filed nomination papers

as independent candidates.

In Nagpur

BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) worked out alliance and NCP (Ajit Pawar) decided to go

alone. Among the Maha-Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners Congress chose to go alone

ignoring the others MVA partners. Congress leaders were not ready to leave

seats they claimed for NCP (Sharad Pawar) or UBT Sena.

BJP, which

claims to be a party with discipline, also experienced the party workers

vending out their discontent publicly. The party has offered opportunities to

youngsters and new faces. The real contest in Nagpur is between BJP and

Congress. BJP MLA Krishna Khopde’s son resigned from the party’s primary

membership after the party rejected his name for the elections.

Over 5,000

applications were received from BJP workers for the 151 seats in Nagpur, while

Krupal Tumane of Shiv Sena had asked for 50 seats initially and later insisted for

27. BJP, however, was not ready to spare more than five seats, but on December

29 agreed for eight seats to Shiv Sena, retaining 143 for it.

Not happy with

the missed chance, irate activists of Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar)

ransacked the party office in Nagpur’s Ganeshpeth on Tuesday. The activists

alleged party leaders of selling party tickets to outsiders. They also charged

the local party leaders to act under pressures from bigger party of the Mega

Alliance.

With the

discontent prevailing among workers of all the parties and the common voters

mutely observing the drama of politics, the outcome of the elections cannot be predicted.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar