NAGPUR, February 13: Former Maharashtra Minister Babasaheb Kedar formally announced yesterday his group's support to Congress nominees from Nagpur and Ramtek constituencies.He clarified that he would not join the Congress at this stage, but would actively campaign for its candidates. He also claimed that Congress had offered to nominate him from the Ramtek constituency, but he had refused. His presence at a press meet called by senior Congressman Sharad Pawar at Nagpur a few days ago had made his intentions clear. Yesterday he confirmed the move.
Kedar, a former chairman of the State Cotton Marketing Federation, once held total sway over Nagpur district's rural politics, the area mainly under Ramtek parliamentary constituency. His grip over local bodies, cooperative banks and institutions in the region appeared too firm.
In the internal rivalries to which Congress is prone, he found partyman Ranjit Deshmukh pecking at the roots of his citadel. Deshmukh posed a serious challenge to Kedar's group in thezilla parishad and cooperative elections.
As the infighting increased, Kedar drew away from the region's Congress leaders and, along with his son Sunil and three loyal followers, rebelled against the official Congress nominees in the 1995 polls. They managed to win and sided with the ruling alliance in the Vidhan Sabha. Sunil was rewarded with a ministerial berth.
In the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the Kedar group supported Congress nominee Kundatai Vijaykar, Sunil's mother-in-law, and he was expelled from the ministry. Now Kedar has nothing but criticism for the alliance government. This is why, he says, he supported Congress candidates this election.
Kedar said he was disappointed with the performance of the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Contrary to expectations, hardships of farmers, labourers and weavers increased under alliance rule, he said. "The alliance government has failed to provide relief to farmers and farmlabourers, badly affected due to unseasonal rains," he alleged.
Kedarfelt the government should have waived farmers' loans and provided fresh loans for alternate crops. He complained that the government had not done anything about the cotton purchase price and had encouraged corruption by not introducing a medium quality in cotton gradation.
Instead of providing employment to youth as promised in its manifesto, the BJP-Sena government closed down co-operative spinning mills, Kedar said. Hundreds of orange growers were in deep trouble as the orange processing plant at Katol was closed down and the one at Morshi was yet to begin operations.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
