BJP ignores old guards, gives chance to newcomers in Maharashtra council polls

Giving a chance to newcomers in the ensuing Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, the BJP seems to have ignored the old guard.

For the election to nine seats of the Council, the BJP, on Friday, nominated Pravin Detke, Gopichand Padalkar, Ajit Gopchede and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil.

In the process, the saffron party, that is on the Opposition benches, seems to have ignored some top leaders. These include Eknath Khadse, Prakash Mehta, Vinod Tawde and Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who were ministers in the erstwhile BJP-Shiv Sena government headed by Devendra Fadnavis, the current leader of the Opposition.

Besides, another top leader whose name was not considered is Pankaja Munde, the daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde and niece of the late Pramod Mahajan. She contested the election from family seat of Parli but lost to NCP's Dhananjay Munde, the Social Justice Minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government.

Last year, Pankaja and Khadse, who was once No 2 in the Fadnavis government, raised a banner of revolt against the Maharashtra leadership but state BJP President Chandrakant Patil pacified them.

In fact, Khadse was keen that he gets an MLC ticket.