Kuntoorkar scents blood, gets set to take on Chavan

AURANGABAD, May 27: Will Gangadharrao Kuntoorkar finally avenge his public humiliation at the hands of S B Chavan? The sugarcane-rice growin...

AURANGABAD, May 27: Will Gangadharrao Kuntoorkar finally avenge his public humiliation at the hands of S B Chavan? The sugarcane-rice growing border tehsil of Biloli has been talking about little else as it warms-up to the June 3 by-elections in Maharashtra. Kuntoorkar, the tall, fair, sharp-nosed, dhoti-clad Congress stalwart from Biloli had been moving from strength to strength in Nanded district, exploiting his position as member of Parliament to the hilt, till the Lok Sabha elections were declared in January this year.

The sitting MP was renominated in the first list declared by the then party president Sitaram Kesri. And even as he readied his election campaign, Congress heavyweight S B Chavan, pulling the strings from New Delhi, managed to get Kuntoorkar’s name dropped to secure a ticket for his son-in-law Bhaskarrao Patil Khatgaonkar. Livid and numbed by the blow, Kuntoorkar lay low, knowing he could not take on a heavyweight like Chavan. "A Lok Sabha election is far too big for a person like me totalk of rebellion," he told The Indian Express. Khatgaonkar went on to win the polls, leaving the Biloli Assembly seat vacant for the by-election.

Kuntoorkar now scents blood, finding a level playing field to take on the Chavans in the Congress. Far from contesting the by-election, he has thrown in his lot with the BJP. After a private meeting at his residence with Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde on Monday, Kuntoorkar and Munde descended in the deputy chief minister’s chopper on a public meeting at Ramteerth, to pledge his support to the BJP candidate, Madhavrao Patil Shelgaonkar.

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The move surprised no one as it was public knowledge that Kuntoorkar had himself handpicked Shelgaonkar for the BJP. But the manner in which Kuntoorkar has been hacking away at Chavan’s edifice in Nanded district has added a dash of colour to the elections there. "How long will Nanded suffer the monopoly of the Chavan family? He has come to a stage when he cannot part with power even for a few minutes," said abelligerent Kuntoorkar.

Why didn’t he vent his spleen at Chavan within the arena of the Congress? "Where is the place for people like me in the party? There is no dearth of candidates in Biloli, but Mr Chavan, against all opinion, cleared the candidature of Balwantrao Chavan. And I have no desire to see such people win elections, says Kuntoorkar, who has already been removed from the party. As for rallying support for a party he once called "communal", Kuntoorkar says, "Oh I have performed all those somersaults as a Congressman. Tell the people that it is wise to have the same government at the Centre and the state if they do not want development plans to stagnate, and that sounds logical." Ironically, as the war cries go up for the BJP and the Congress alternatively, the JD candidate, Gangaram Thakkarwad, might just walk away with the honours.