Disappointment For Jagdish Mulik, Dheeraj Ghate As BJP Announces 3 Candidates For MLC Polls

In a disappointment for former BJP MLA and former city president Jagdish Mulik and Pune city president Dheeraj Ghate, BJP announced the names of three candidates, including a close aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and a former MLA, for the March 27 by-elections to five seats in the state legislative council.

The by-elections have been necessitated due to the victory of the five sitting MLCs in the November 2024 assembly polls. These names include Sandip Diwakarrao Joshi, Sanjay Kishanrao Kenekar, and Dadarao Yadavrao Keche.

Setback for Mulik and Ghate

For the uninitiated, as the bypolls for the five seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council approach later this month, speculations on the appointment of Mulik and Ghate from Pune were rife.

In the 2019 assembly polls, Mulik, a former MLA, was defeated by NCP MLA Sunil Tingre. Following the defeat, Mulik was appointed BJP’s city president. Although Mulik had shown interest in contesting the Lok Sabha elections, he was sidelined when former mayor Murlidhar Mohol was chosen instead. After Ajit Pawar’s faction aligned with the BJP, the Vadgaon Sheri assembly seat, which Mulik was contesting, was handed to the Ajit Pawar group, forcing Mulik to step back. During the 2024 polls, while filing his nomination, Mulik was called by Devendra Fadnavis and promised a Legislative Council seat. Even Ajit Pawar, during his campaign for Tingre, stated that the constituency would get both an MLA and an MLC.

While Ghate was also disgruntled as he was not chosen for the Pune assembly seat and had publicly expressed his disappointment, he later joined the campaign.

Who are these three people?

Joshi is the former mayor of Nagpur and a close aide of Fadnavis. Kenekar is the general secretary of the state BJP unit and from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. While Dadarao Yadavrao Keche is a former MLA. Keche won the 2009 and 2019 assembly elections from Arvi constituency in Wardha district of the Vidarbha region. He was denied a ticket for the 2024 polls as the BJP then fielded Fadnavis’ former personal secretary Sumit Wankhede from the Arvi seat.