In a case of the BJP allegedly claiming Lok Sabha seats from its ally Shiv Sena, the saffron party has fielded sitting MP Navnit Kaur Rana from her constituency in Maharashtra’s Amravati. Many leaders in the Eknath Shinde-led party are unhappy that their partner for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is taking away tickets, citing ground surveys.
The BJP has claimed Amravati and given a ticket to Rana, who contested and won from the seat as an Independent in the 2019 general elections. But, this has left former MP Anandrao Adsul miffed. The Shiv Sena leader had defeated Rana from this seat in 2014.
“Navnit Rana is going to lose as there is a pending case against her. There is a lot of anger against her, so how will she contest the election?” he asked, adding that the BJP has given a ticket to her, and not the Mahayuti as a whole.
“Mahayuti did not give her a ticket; yes, the BJP is in the Mahayuti but has declared many tickets on its own. On the ground, the entire BJP cadre is against her,” he said.
Adsul further said the decision to give a ticket to Rana was not made by Mahayuti, but “someone” has made the seat a “prestige issue”. According to Sena sources, party MLAs and MPs want their top leadership to speak to the BJP and ask them not to claim seats based on survey reports. They have also requested the leadership to consider the ground reality from local leaders instead of blindly trusting these surveys.
From 1999 to 2014, Amravati was considered a Sena bastion. It was held by Shiv Sena leader Anant Gundhe from 1999 to 2004, and then by Adsul from 2009 to 2019. In 2014, he defeated Rana, who was then contesting on an NCP ticket. She had lost to him by a margin of more than one lakh votes but, in 2019, she wrested the seat from him by 36,501 votes.
Last week, Rana was formally inducted into the BJP when the party declared her as a candidate from Amravati. A small induction ceremony was organised at state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s house in Nagpur.
On Thursday, Rana landed in Mumbai to meet deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at his residence in Mumbai. “All alliance partners of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) have been asked to cooperate with the official candidates of the Mahayuti. I will also seek the blessing of all senior leaders of the NDA in my constituency. To achieve PM (Narendra) Modi ji’s dream of development, I will continue to work for the people of Amravati,” she told News18.
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