BJP MLC Mahadev Jankar who is seeking election to Legislative Council changed his mind and filed nomination papers on Thursday as Rashtriya Samaj Party candidate keeping BJP under tension.
Hectic parleys were going on within the BJP to convince Jankar to contest on a BJP ticket. The BJP on Wednesday had issued a press release which included Jankar's name as a BJP candidate. Despite day long efforts by all BJP bigwigs including state unit president Raosaheb Danve and various ministers including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Jankar filed his nomination papers for the election to the legislative council as RSP candidate.
There are 11 seats of legislative council which would be vacated since tenure of the members is coming to an end and the election is to be held on July 16. The nomination papers were filed on Thursday and last day for withdrawal is July 9.
The BJP has fielded five candidates and after Jankar did not yield to its efforts, BJP decided to field Prithviraj Deshmukh from Sangli as its fifth candidate.
Jankar was elected to the Upper House as BJP member but since the government has not been able to reserve benefits to his Dhangar (shepherd) community, he is contesting as an RSP candidate. Sources informed that the BJP leadership in New Delhi does not want any problem with alliance partners and that is the reason they do not want to antagonise Jankar. But at the same time, Republican Party of India (Athavle Faction) has expressed its resentment over not being given one seat in this election.
