On Friday, Maharashtra Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis apologised over speaking on the phone on the opening day of the 99 th Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Satara, stating that he was handling rebel candidates towards the last day of municipal poll nomination withdrawal. The last day to withdraw candidature in 29 cities including major cities like Mumbai and pune was 3 pm on the same day.
Fadnavis admitted that the situation is unusual, as he said, people are aware that I do not make phone calls when I am on the dais. But today I had no option.” He described that there are rebel candidates within every political party and that they usually require special intervention to make them withdraw to allow nominees of the party. In each party, there are rebel candidates. They do not retire till they are addressed and appeased, he added.
At the literary event, Fadnavis would meet workers of the parties and aspirants to purchase tickets, making him take care of organisational directives but at the same time be aware of what was happening on stage. To this, he said, I am sorry to the literary fraternity, but it was done to safeguard the interests of the party and its candidates.
Dissent has been experienced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent days where some aspirants have been refused to be given official tickets to contest and instead have decided to run as independents. These rebel candidatures could divide the votes, and hurt the chances of the party in the municipal elections. As an effort to counteract this, the party leadership resorted to the use of last minute damage control with senior leadership, district leaders, and other office holders in the local office organizing themselves to persuade the dissatisfied members to back down.
As a form of ending wrangles and keeping the party together, Fadnavis personally made phone calls to various rebel chiefs promising them organisational positions and prospects of the future.
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