BJP withdraws nominee for Andheri bypoll
Vibha Sharma
New Delhi, October 17
In a rare political move, the BJP today withdrew its candidate, Murji Patel, from the Andheri (East) bypoll, paving the way for Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena’s Rutuja Latke, wife of the late Shiv Sena leader Ramesh Latke, to win unopposed.
Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule attributed the decision to the state’s political culture whereby parties refrain from fielding a candidate if a relative of an MLA or an MP who has passed away contests the bypoll.
“Murji Patel won’t contest as an Independent. Under the leadership of our Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, we were 100 per cent going to win this election, but there are precedents,” he said.
The Uddhav side had claimed that the BJP would be trounced in the elections and its candidate would even lose his security deposit.
Many leaders, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and MNS chief Raj Thackeray, had urged that Rutuja be elected unopposed. Raj Thackeray had also written to Fadnavis requesting the BJP not to contest the bypoll.
Notably, it was only after the court intervention that Rutuja was able to file nomination. Rutuja, a BMC official, had tendered resignation on September 2 to contest the elections necessitated by the death of her husband and Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May. According to reports, she was told her letter was not in a proper format on October 3.
Rutuja, who submitted a fresh resignation letter the same day, claimed the delay was to prevent her from contesting.
The Uddhav side also alleged that the BMC chief Iqbal Chahal was under pressure from the ruling Eknath Shinde-BJP government not to accept the resignation and was dragging the matter so that Rutuka becomes ineligible to contest.
According to rules, she could not have filed nominations till her resignation was accepted and she was relieved from service.
Rutuja then moved the High Court seeking a direction to the BMC to accept her resignation. The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the BMC to accept the resignation and issue her an appropriate letter.
