Congress, NCP leaders line up for West Nagpur ticket

Even though Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are yet to thrash out a seat sharing arrangement, several leaders of both
parties are camping in Mumbai to get the party ticket from West Nagpur. They feel that the constituency has a large Congress-NCP vote bank and the BJP's chances of victory are slim.

Local NCP leaders are pressing their party bosses to stake claim to the West Nagpur seat, whose profile has changed considerably even though the name has remained the same. The sitting MLA of this constituency is BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, who has decided to contest from South-West Nagpur, a new constituency. Hence, the Congress cannot refuse the seat on the grounds that it would have to deny ticket to a sitting MLA, NCP sources said.

However, several Congress leaders too are eyeing this seat, so it remains to be seen whether the Congress would accede the seat to its ally.

Among the aspirants for this seat is Umred MLA Rajendra Mulak. Mulak, who is the nephew of PMO minister Prithviraj Chavhan, is lobbying hard for the seat as he was told that he would be rehabilitated after his constituency Umred was reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC). At that time he had been told that he would be given a ticket from either West Nagpur or Kamptee. However, Mulak's first preference is West Nagpur, Congress sources said.

Similarly, textile minister Anees Ahmed is also not very keen to contest from his present constituency Central Nagpur. This was a very small constituency, but after delimitation several areas of the earlier North and East Nagpur constituencies have been included in it. The constituency now has a large Halba vote bank, and Ahmed is not very comfortable with this.

Former mayor Vikas Thakre, a protege of MP Vilas Muttemwar, is also keen on contesting from this seat. He was all set to get the party ticket from West Nagpur in 2004, but Ranjit Deshmukh snatched it away from him at the last moment. However, to complicate things for Thakre, Vilas Muttemwar's son Vishal is also seeking a party ticket and is not averse to contesting from West Nagpur, Congress sources said.

As for NCP leaders, Anil Deshmukh is trying hard to get a party ticket for his son Salil from this seat. City NCP president Ashok Dhawad is also keen on contesting from this constituency.

With so many aspirants from Congress and NCP, leaders of both parties say that after the seat sharing arrangement is finalised, choosing a candidate for this seat would be a difficult task for the party that gets to contest this seat.