Race for Gadkari’s successor begins

Earlier this year,Munde,another prominent BJP leader from the state,was elected to the Lok Sabha. Both had been active for almost two decades,Munde as MLA and Gadkari as MLC and were prominent faces of the party in the state.

With both leaders,who had come to be be identified with BJP politics in Maharashtra for over two decades,shifting base to the national capital,the BJP state unit is looking for new faces to lead it.

The BJP is the single largest opposition party in the Assembly and holds the posts of Leader of the Opposition in both Houses of the Maharashtra legislature. The posts were claimed by the party after it bagged more seats than the Shiv Sena in the Assembly elections for the first time in the two-decade alliance. While the BJP won 46 seats,the Shiv Sena got 44.

Several second-rung BJP state leaders,including former Nagpur mayor and three-time MLA from Nagpur Devendra Fadnavis,MLA from Jat in Sangli district Prakash Shendge,MLC Vinod Tawde and Ballarpur MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar are in the race for the state chief’s post.

Fadnavis and Mungantiwar are from Vidarbha and among the most articulate and aggressive BJP MLAs in the state,with the former being the youngest. Tawde is a close lieutenant of Gadkari and had taken his side during the Gadkari-Munde squabbles. Shendge is also a trusted lieutenant of Gadkari and belongs to the Dhangar (shepherd) community listed as a nomadic tribe. Shendge would be the choice if the party wants to give a non-Brahmin face to the state,especially as Munde (an OBC and Gadkari-baiter) has moved to Delhi.

BJP spokesperson Vivekanand Gupta said the drive for party membership was under way and the election of the next party president would be conducted in the first week of March. Party leaders said that due to Assembly elections,the organizational elections scheduled this month had to be postponed.