Following the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance’s big victory in the Maharashtra Council polls, the focus has shifted to the future plans of Independent candidate Satyajeet Tambe, who recorded a win from the Nashik graduates constituency seat.
The victory of MVA candidate Dhiraj Lingade from the Amravati graduates constituency on Friday ensured that it won three of the five seats that went to the polls, dealing a blow to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena alliance that managed to win just the Konkan teachers constituency seat.
MVA-backed contestants Sudhakar Adbale and Vikrant Kale had won the Nagpur and Aurangabad teachers constituencies, respectively, on Thursday.
Mr. Tambe, former State Youth Congress chief and son of former party MLC Sudhir Tambe, said on Friday he would decide on Saturday if he would join the BJP or return to the Congress after holding a meeting with his supporters.
“The credit goes to the personal connect our family has with the voters. The win would have been sweeter if I had contested as a Congress candidate… I will announce my decision tomorrow,” he said, hinting that it was not the party, but a few Congress leaders who were behind the fiasco over his nomination.
Cracks had emerged within the MVA, comprising the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, after the Congress chose Mr. Tambe’s father as its candidate from the Nashik seat. However, he withdrew his nomination at the last minute and Mr. Tambe entered the contest as an Independent, claiming to seek the BJP’s support.
Despite Mr. Tambe insisting that he still supported the Congress, the party high command initiated disciplinary proceedings against him and his father. The ‘rebel’, who is also the nephew of senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, went on to defeat his nearest rival, Shubhangi Patil, an Independent backed by the MVA, by nearly 30,000 votes.
BJP’s backing
The BJP has been wooing Mr. Tambe, who had invited Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to his book launch late last year. The party did not field its own candidate for the Nashik seat and threw its weight behind Mr. Tambe, hoping that he would join its camp after the results.
‘Return to Congress’
Meanwhile, senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar dubbed the poll results “a big setback” for the BJP, with educated voters in the teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies exercising their franchise against the ruling party. “Satyajeet’s win by a huge margin shows that even MVA workers voted for him. In my opinion, since he and his family have been associated with the Congress for so long, he should forget the recent tensions and return to the party,” Mr. Pawar said.
However, State Congress chief Nana Patole said the high command would take the final call.