BJP seeking Hingna seat from Sena

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is reportedly seeking the Hingna assembly seat from its alliance partner Shiv Sena, as it feels that it
has a better chance of wresting the constituency from the NCP in the coming assembly elections.

BJP sources said that the state party leaders are offering the Sena a seat in the Mumbai region in return for the Hingna seat. A final decision on this would be taken in the coming days before the seat sharing arrangements was formally announced.

Party sources said that the BJP had pointed out to Sena leaders that the rural areas under West Nagpur constituency, which were nurtured by the party, have now been included in Hingna constituency. Secondly, the constituency has witnessed rapid urbanisation in the past five years and these voters were more likely to vote for the BJP than the Sena.

The Sena has performed miserably in the last four elections in this constituency, earlier known as Kalmeshwar. In 1990, Ravindra Bhoge polled just 6,389 votes against Congress's Babasaheb Kedar's 38,767 votes. In 1995, Sena fielded Ramesh Adhao who lost to Ramesh Bang, who was contesting as an independent, by around 11,000 votes.

Hopes were raised in 1999 when Nana Gawande of Congress jumped into the fray as a rebel against Ramesh Bang, who was contesting on an NCP ticket. However, Adhao flopped again and came third. To the BJP's dismay, Sena fielded Adhao again in 2004. This time, even though Nana Gawande's wife Sunita had contested as a rebel Congress candidate, Bang won easily for the third time in a row while Adhao remained on third position.

Analyzing the reasons for Adhao's poor performance, a BJP leader put it bluntly, "Adhao is a very good man but he doesn't have the wherewithal to contest an assembly election."

BJP sources said that three names were in the reckoning for the party ticket from Hingna, these were Wadi sarpanch Naresh Charde, and ZP members Vijay Ghormade and Madhu Pardhi. They, however, added that Baba Ashtankar, who was earlier with the Congress, was seeking a ticket from Sena bosses. Former Ramtek MP Prakash Jadhav had also been considered by the Sena top brass but he had reportedly turned down the offer.

BJP leaders are keeping a keen eye on the Congress camp to see whether Nana Gawande once again jumps into the fray as a rebel.