Rajya Sabha polls: Congress names Dalit leader Chandrakant Handore from Maha

While Chandrakant Handore’s nomination has come as a boost for the Maharashtra Congress as the party leaders had hoped that the central leadership will field a party worker from the state, the move also points to Congress’ attempts to atone for Chandrakant Handore’s loss in June 2022 Legislative Council election despite the party having numbers.

A former Mumbai mayor, Chandrakant Handore had lost the legislative council polls in 2022 despite the Congress the fact that the party could easily secure his election as it had numbers. It is alleged that Chandrakant Handore lost due to cross-voting. The Congress had enough numbers in the Assembly to elect only one leader, the party fielded two, dividing the votes.

While Chandrakant Handore was apparently first choice for the Legislative Council, it is Bhai Jagtap who won the polls. Chandrakant Handore had then blamed cross voting during the legislative council polls.

“I was officially the candidate of the party and the MPCC had given a quota of 29 votes to me. Since we have 44 MLAs and the rest of the votes would have got wasted, the party decided to have a second candidate, Bhai Jagtap. We had expected that Jagtap would get the rest of the votes from allies. I have done my math and found that two of our MLAs cross-voted and five votes meant for me went to Jagtap,” he told the Indian Express.

While he did not blame the Congress leadership, he accused some of his colleagues of “stabbing him in the back”. “People are angry. I was a Dalit face. I was Cabinet minister from 2004 to 2009 and did a lot for Dalits. Their sympathy is with me. This could have helped the party in the civic polls. Some people have stabbed me in the back,” he said.

Chandrakant Handore, who has risen from the ranks, was a minister in the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government. Handore’s candidature comes as a boost for the Maharashtra Congress as the party leaders and workers had hoped that the central leadership will nominate a party worker from the state.

In the last Rajya Sabha polls held in 2022, the Congress had nominated Imran Pratapgarhi from Maharashtra. A total of 56 members of the Rajya Sabha from 15 states are retiring in April and the election to the seats will be held on February 27. The last date for filing nominations is February 15.

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Published: 14 Feb 2024, 06:17 PM IST