Navneet Kaur to return to NCP?
MUMBAI: Realising that her chances of getting a seat from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are bleak, Navneet Kaur, a former Telugu actor and wife of independent MLA Ravi Rana , is looking at getting a ticket from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Kaur and Rana, an independent MLA from Badnera Assembly constituency in Amravati district, recently met senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar in the district. The meeting is being seen as an indication that Kaur is interested in joining the NCP once again. Rana has been close to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for the past four years. His Assembly constituency is with the Sena and his chances of getting a BJP ticket in the polls scheduled for later this year, too, are bleak, if the two parties join hands.
NCP insiders said Kaur is aware that the BJP will not be able to give her candidature from the Amravati Lok Sabha constituency, as they are forging alliance with the Sena for the polls. Sena’s Anandrao Adsul is the MP from the constituency.
Kaur was the NCP candidate from the Amravati constituency in 2014 elections and lost to Adsul by over 1.37 lakh votes. According to the seat-sharing formula between the Congress and NCP, Amravati parliamentary seat comes in NCP quota. The NCP is currently holding ‘Nirdhaar Parivartan Yatra’, a statewide agitation against the current regime of BJP and Shiv Sena over farm distress and other public issues. Pawar, along with other senior leaders, visited the Amravati district as part of the agitation on Wednesday. Kaur met Pawar for over ten minutes in a closed-door meeting.
“We share a very good equation with Ajit Pawar. He supported us in the previous polls and so we decided to meet him. Although all parties want us to be with them, we are yet to decide. Nothing is impossible in politics,” Rana said. “We are not supporting the BJP to get candidature [for Kaur] for the elections.”
“It is evident that the BJP and Sena are joining hands for the upcoming polls, which means Kaur will not get election ticket from the BJP for Amravati seat. They are keen to make a comeback. The party leadership is yet to take a call on this,” said a senior NCP leader.
Meanwhile, the Congress and NCP’S efforts to bring in Rajendra Gavai-led Republican Party of India (RPI) in their alliance could not yield positive results. The opposition parties were ready to give him Amravati Lok Sabha seat on the condition that he (Gavai) would contest on their election symbol as RPI doesn’t have a permanent symbol. “I too heard that Kaur is joining the NCP and she can be their candidate for the general polls from Amravati seat, but I am firm on my decision to contest the polls on our own symbol,” Gavai said.