BJP Emerges Big Brother In Seat Sharing Offers Shinde-Pawar Rebels To Contest On Lotus Symbol

The BJP has emerged as a big bossy brother in the ticket distribution process in Maharashtra insisting on cornering almost 66 % of the seats in Maharashtra — it wants 32 tickets of the total 48 seats. While Eknath Shinde may get 10 tickets instead of 18 that he had demanded, Ajit Pawar could get only 4 instead of 10 that he has sought. This squeezes out the aspirations of those who came in with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar hoping for better prospects and gives a free hand for criticism from the opposition. Both the rebel wings are not giving it up easily and instead putting up a strong perception fight in the media via statements from leaders like Ramdas Kadam and Chhagan Bhujbal. While Kadam, who is upset about BJP fiddling in his son’s Dapoli constituency, stated that the BJP cannot be growing at the cost of others, Bhujbal insisted that the NCP should get tickets on par with the Shinde’s Sena. Both have been asked by Amit Shah to be practical in their demands and focus instead on candidates having winning potential. A new compromise strategy is being floated to accommodate these aspirants from Shinde and Pawar factions — the BJP wants a few to contest on the lotus symbol. This has sparked sarcastic comments from the Congress leader Nana Patole commenting that BJP is now stealing candidates from other parties since they don’t have their own. This is also believed to be a strategy to weaken the rebel parties and quell any prospect of rebellion, post the elections.