Ex-Cong minister's challenge before two rival Sena nominees spices up contest in Ramtek seat

Nagpur, Nov 16 (PTI) The Ramtek assembly constituency in Maharashtra's Nagpur, once a Congress bastion that later became a saffron citadel, is witnessing an interesting electoral battle this time as a former minister contesting as an independent has posed a challenge before the major contenders.
Ramtek, which is one of 12 assembly constituencies in Nagpur district, is part of the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat that was won by the Congress in this year's general elections.
Sitting MLA Ashish Jaiswal, who had won this seat in the 2019 assembly polls as an independent candidate, has now been fielded by the Shiv Shinde led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as a Mahayuti nominee for the November 20 assembly polls. Vishal Barbate of Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), who is contesting his maiden assembly election, has challenged him.
But Rajendra Mulak, who was suspended by the Congress for "anti-party activities" recently, is posing a huge challenge and has an edge over the candidates of the two major political parties, feel political experts.
Ramtek houses a historic temple of Lord Ram. It is believed that Ramtek was the place where Lord Ram rested during his exile. There are around 2.85 lakh voters in this constituency.
This seat remained with the Congress for over two decades from 1962, and was won by the party again in 1991. Ashish Jailswal breached this Congress bastion for the first time when he won the seat as a candidate of the undivided Shiv Sena in 1999. He retained the seat in 2004 and 2009 as well. But in 2014, the BJP fielded Mallikarjun Reddy, who won it. However, Reddy was defeated by Jaiswal in 2019 after the latter contested as an independent.
Independent candidate Mulak is a protégé of former chief minister and Congress veteran Prithviraj Chavan and is also related to him. His father Bhau Mulak was state minister in the 1970s. Rajendra Mulak also served as a minister of state for finance and planning, energy and water resources in the Prithviraj Chavan-led cabinet.
Mulak, who was the Nagpur rural president till a few days back.
Political analyst and senior Journalist Ramu Bhagwat said Ramtek was once known as the safe haven for the Congress.
"It achieved political importance when former prime minister late P V Narasimha Rao contested from Ramtek Lok Sabha seat once. But ironically, the Congress symbol will be missing from the election scene for the first time as the party had to bow down before an adamant Shiv Sena (UBT) and give the seat to it in the seat-sharing talks," he said.
"So although it may look like a straight fight between Sena (UBT)'s Barbate and Shiv Sena's Jaiswal, Mulak has jumped into the fray and has a good rapport in Nagpur's rural pockets," he said.
Mulak had earlier contested and won from the Umred assembly constituency in Nagpur district. but after delimitation in 2009 the seat was reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates and turned out of bounds for Mulak, who is a Kunbi Maratha, Bhagwat said.
"Since then he worked for the party organisation in other parts of rural Nagpur" he added.
According to Bhagwat, Mulak's clout can be gauged by the fact that even as he has been expelled from the Congress for six years, he is being actively supported by some party leaders.
There are reports that sitting Congress MLA from Saoner and strongman Sunil Kedar as well as Shyamkumar Barve, the Congress MP from Ramtek, are openly campaigning for Mulak even as he is fighting as an independent. Mulak also put up a massive show of strength at the time of filing his nomination papers.
Journalist Jaideep Hardikar, who is a core team member of the People's Archive of Rural India (PARI), feels the main contest this time is between Jaiswal and Mulak.
"There are two reasons for it. Mulak is a strong candidate - in terms of both the caste factor and he is being seen as someone who can defeat the incumbent. Another factor is the votes of tribals, who will side with the Congress and Dalits won't vote for the Sena (UBT) as he is a new candidate and seen as someone who may not be able to defeat Jaiswal."
"There is anti-incumbency and anger in the mind of people. The contest appears to be very close, but Mulak may get an edge," he said.
Bhagwat says that Sena (UBT) candidate Barbate, who runs a car dealership in Nagpur city, is perceived as a weak candidate. He faces an uphill task taking on Jaiswal.
Political journalist from Nagpur Atul Mehere feels that Sena (UBT)'s infighting and Congress MLA Kedar's strong network will go in favour of Mulak.
Talking to PTI, Mulak said, "We expect to win the election by a huge margin of votes. There is anti-incumbency against the sitting MLA and people did not like his betrayal to his party. I have been working for the people of this constituency for the last 10 years and people will vote for me."
Sena (UBT)'s youth wing Yuva Sena's district president Vikram Rathod believes that the fight between the Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the former Congressman will benefit the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.
"Ramtek is a Shiv Sena (UBT) bastion and it will win this seat," he said.
A resident of Parseoni in Ramtek, Deepak Paliwal, says people may vote in favour of Mulak as they want change.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)