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NCP president Sharad Pawar will meet senior party leaders on February 22 and 23 to finalise the party's Lok Sabha poll strategy and candidates for 22 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. NCP is also expected to clear the print, media and social media campaign strategy in the proposed meeting.
This is the first meeting Pawar will chair after NCP finalised the electoral pact with ruling partner Congress for general elections.
Congress, which was initially reluctant for a 26:22 seat sharing formula implemented by both the parties in the 2009 polls, finally consented to contest 26 seats while leaving 22 to NCP in Maharashtra. There are in all 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state of which Congress had won 17, NCP- 8, independents-3, Shiv Sena -11 and BJP - 9 in the 2009 general elections.
The proposed two-day exercise also comes close on the heels of Pawar denying any meeting with Narendra Modi. Pawar has clarified that NCP is and will continue to be in UPA and there was no question of joining NDA.
NCP spokesman Nawab Mailk told Business Standard, "Our party chief Sharad Pawar will hold discussions on poll strategy and decide candidates during the proposed meeting."
Malik indicated that NCP will not insist on exchanging seats with the Congress but will step up its efforts to win maximum seats from its quota. NCP is expected to release its list next week.
NCP faces a major challenge to makeover its image especially in the wake of allegations against its ministers for their alleged involvement in various scams. To this end, it has already taken a decision to field new faces including sitting and former ministers and youths.
Of the 22 seats, the party is yet to finalise its nominees for at least four seats largely due to the intra-party feud and absence of a politically strong leader to take on the opposition parties. Pawar, who has already held talks with different groups within the party to avoid rebellion, is expected to use his veto to fix nominees in Beed, Madha, Hatkanangale, Amravati.
Beed is currently represented by BJP while Shiv Sena had won in Amravati, which is a reserved seats. Hatkanangale has been hogging the limelight as the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetty, who had won in the 2009 polls, has challenged NCP to defeat him in the coming elections.
As far as Madha is concerned, NCP is striving to put up an acceptable candidate as it was represented by Pawar himself in the last elections. Pawar, who had declared he will not contest the Lok Sabha polls, was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Pawar will take a call on the nomination of either Jaidutt Kshirsagar or Suresh Dhas from Beed. The nominated candidate will be pitted against BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde. Munde, who hails from Vanzari community, has already launched a vitrolic attack against Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar.
In Madha, former deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil is the front runner. However, Pawar will make all efforts to pacify party legislator Babanrao Shinde in particular and seek his support for Mohite-Patil's candidature. In Hatkanangale, the state rural development minister Jayant Patil has already refused to contest the Lok Sabha polls. The choice is limited here and Pawar could pick former MP Nivedita Mane or find a new candidate.
In Amravati, Pawar will have to decide on the nomination of G Devapare or Dinesh Boob. NCP is divided over nominating Nanveet Kaur, who is the wife of an independent MLA Ravi Rana from Badnera assembly constituency.
NCP's nominees for 18 constituencies which have so far been selected include Nashik :Public Works Minister Chhagan Bhujbal; Baramati: Supriya Sule; Bhandara-Gondia :Union minister for heavy industries Praful Patel; Satara: Udayanraje Bhosale; Shirur :Devdutt Nikam; Jalgaon:Satish Patil, Raver :Maharashtra Legislative Assembly's former speaker Arun Gujarathi; Kolhapur: Dhananjay Mahadik; Parbhani :Vijay Bhamble; Maval : Laxman Jagtap, Buldhana:Rekha Khedekar;Thane :Sanjeev Naik; North East Mumbai :Sanjay Patil; Kalyan: Anand Paranjape; Osmanabad : former minister Padmasinh Patil; Dindori : former minister AT Pawar; Ahmednagar :Rajiv Rajale and Hingoli :former union minister of state Suryakanta Patil.
