Cong wants a Sena-BJP fight in Palghar LS by-poll

The Congress, which has lost its voters share in Palghar Lok Sabha constituency from 22.94 per cent in 2009 to 0.80 per cent in 2014 poll, wants the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to fight against each other in the by-poll scheduled on May 28. On the other hand, Sena, which doesn’t have a presence in the constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) wants to cut the vote margin by dividing traditional votes of BJP.

Shiv Sena has fielded Srinivas Vanga, son of late Chintaman Vanga, BJP MP, whereas the BJP too has ‘imported’ Rajendra Gavit from Congress and has given him the ticket. Apart from these two, Bahujan Vikas Party (BVA) has fielded former MP Baliram Jadhav, Congress candidate is former MP Damodar Shingada, Gahala Raja is Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate, Shankar Badade is of Marxist Leninist Party of India and Sandeep Jadhav is an independent candidate. In 2009 poll, Congress did not fielded a candidate, but Sachin, Shingada’s son, was independent candidate. He secured just 0.80 percent of votes.

According to numbers, the fight is between BJP’s Gavit, Jadhav of BVA and Vanga of Sena. As the Sena has no presence in constituency, the it will be direct fight between BVA and BJP. A Sena insider claimed that their candidate could attract some of BJP voters who might be strong followers of late Chintaman Vanga. “Late Chintaman Vanga had done good work and had strengthening the BJP in tribal area. His followers may chose Srinivas while voting. There are possibility of dividing BJP’s votes. We know, Sena can not win Palghar, but want to affect BJP by contesting by-poll in Palghar,” the party insider said.

The source added, if BJP really wanted to pay homage to late Vanga, it must have supported Srinivas instead of fielding imported candidate from Congress. On the other hand, a BJP leader said, “The party has strong base in Palghar. We increased our share of voters from 31.89% in 2009 to 53.72% in 2014.” He added, “Congress has never been in the race since 2009 and our fight is with BVA. The difference between vote shares between BJP and BVA was 23% in 2014. So despite Sena, we are sure, BJP will retain Palghar seat.”