CONG CANDIDATE WALKS TIGHTROPE IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ELECTION

MUMBAI: The withdrawal by the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Manoj Kotak, and Nationalist Congress Party rebel Prasad Lad’s refusal to withdraw from the fray, have posed a challenge before Congress candidate Bhai Jagtap, who is standing for a seat in the legislative council from the Mumbai civic body constituency.

After Kotak withdrew his candidature, the Congress tried its best to convince Lad, the former office bearer of the NCP and an independent candidate in the election, to withdraw as well, to no avail. This is bad for Jagtap, who falls far short of the winning votes as of now.

“Though the Congress has 51 corporators in the BMC, we have no support from any other party including Samajwadi Party (SP). The 14 NCP corporators will vote for Lad, who has the party leadership’s backing. Some SP corporators have seconded the candidature of Lad while filing their nominations, meaning the party supports him. BJP is unlikely to support our candidate, making it difficult for us to garner the support of more than 20 corporators,” said a Congress leader on the condition of anonymity.

A top NCP leader said that Lad has been fielded by the state party leadership, and his candidature is the result of infighting between the state and city leadership. Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly and Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said that his party was still hopeful about cooperation from both the sides. Elections for the eight council seats will be held on