The Hindu : Sena not to field candidate against Shinde

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

Other States

Other States - Maharashtra

Sena not to field candidate against Shinde

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI MAY 2. In a surprise development, the Shiv Sena today decided not to field a candidate against Sushilkumar Shinde, making it an easy romp for him to the Assembly from the Solapur South seat in a byelection for which processes have started.

Mr. Shinde, who was a member of the Lok Sabha when sworn-in the Chief Minister 101 days ago, needs to get elected to the Assembly if he has to continue in office beyond six months.

This has come as a surprise to most observers who expected the Sena, which has been rattling its anti-Congress and anti-NCP sabres of late and moved vigorously in unison with the BJP. Even to many senior BJP leaders, this was a startling development.

Solapur, which was occupied by Anandrao Deokate, a Cabinet-rank Minister, has been vacated to enable Mr. Shinde gain entry into the Assembly. This seat was on offer from him the day Mr. Shinde was picked by the Congress to lead Maharashtra.

Solapur South was contested unsuccessfully by the Sena in an arrangement with the BJP in 1999 but Mr. Deokate won and, officially, the stand is "it is for the Sena to decide".

The Sena leader, Bal Thackeray's argument is that elections are expensive and that Mr. Shinde need not have imposed a byelection on Maharashtra and could well have chosen to go to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly constituency.

The chink in this argument is that some cross-voting by MLAs can lead to a crisis, since all parties in the Democratic Front alliance are riven by factionalism and an opportunity to settle scores is tempting. At this moment, Mr. Shinde is the only major candidate in the fray.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

Stories in this Section

Sena not to field candidate against Shinde