Sandesh Prabhudesai
23 August 1999
Having joined the Congress to contest Lok Sabha elections, Ramakant
Khalap, former union minister, has left his Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party in total
distress. After suddenly withdrawing both its candidates from the fray, the party leaders
are now fighting over whom to support.
Prof Surendra Sirsat, the MGP chief, has served show cause notices to
Dr Kashinath Jalmi, former state opposition leader and Rohidas Naik, a freedom fighter,
who withdrew from the contest without taking the party leadership into confidence.
Soon after Khalap split from the four-decade old regional outfit and
claimed that he had merged the whole MGP into the Congress, the party leadership had
bounced back, announcing that it is still alive among the Hindu Bhaujan Samaj, the mass
base it represented from the time of liberation in 1961.
But both the candidates, Jalmi and Naik, withdrew from the contest
within two days while announcing their support to the BJP candidates in both the
constituencies. More than Naik in the South, Jalmi seemed worried that his presence in the
North may benefit Khalap due to probable split among the majority Hindu vote bank.
But Sirsat, who condemned his party colleagues for withdrawing without
taking the leadership into confidence, summoned a meet to decide not to support any party
in particular. While other parties are busy electioneering, the MGP is now occupied
sending show cause notices and accusing each other over the withdrawal drama.
Though Khalap claims that Jalmi's withdrawal would ultimately benefit
him as the traditional MGP voters would now follow him, he may be proved wrong by the
electorate, who has been consistently shifting its allegiance towards the BJP, the viable
alternative he claims to have found to the Congress.
In fact Khalap was pushed down to the third position in '98
Parliamentary polls by both - the Congress who won the polls as well as the BJP, who
actually made heavy inroads into the MGP's traditional vote bank.
The MGP, which had ruled the state initially for the 17 years till
1979, has been totally marginalised now. While most of its leaders kept on defecting to
the ruling Congress from 1980 onwards, Khalap was the last blow after the regional outfit
could not elect more than four legislators including Khalap in the state Assembly polls
held two months ago.
Eagre to enter the Parliament once again, the former union minister has
now joined the Congress, claiming that he was left with no other option. But this election
would prove to be an acid test for the lawyer-turned-politician as he had emerged as the
most popular leader for being consistent in his anti-Congress stance.
While its leaders are now totally divided over whom to support during the polls, it
appears that they would be left with a few handful of voters who would wait for the
leadership to direct them in this regard. Some of them have already gone behind Khalap
whereas the rest may vote for the BJP as well as the Nationalist Congress Party, the two
non-Congress options they are left with.
Your Comments Please
