Congress gives Gadkari a reason to smile!

New Delhi, Jan 23: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had surprised the Congress in 2014 Lok Sabha polls by snatching Nagpur seat from it.

Despite being the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters, Nagpur has always been a Congress bastion.

When debutant Gadkari defeated seven-time Member of Parliament (MP) Vilas Muttemwar by a huge margin of 2,86,828 votes, it was only the second time that the saffron party had managed to win the parliamentary seat. Ironically, the first BJP MP from Nagpur, Banwari Lal Purohit, was a Congressman.

Incumbent Tamil Nadu Governor Purohit, who was then a Congress MP from Nagpur, had shifted loyalty in the wake of Ramjanambhoomi- Babri Masjid dispute.

Riding on Ayodhya Ram Temple wave in 1996, Purohit defeated the Congress candidate and registered first win for the BJP in last 15 Lok Sabha polls.

Apart from being the headquarters of the RSS, Nagpur is the place where the architect of the Indian Constitution, B. R. Ambedkar, converted to Buddhism with approximately 600,000 followers on Ashok Vijaya Dashami on October 14, 1956. The conversion place is now recognized as sacred Deekshabhoomi.

Kunbi, Teli, Halba, Dalit and Muslim voters have always been a deciding factor in every Lok Sabha polls in Nagpur and they are more or less inclined towards the Congress.

The caste combination of the voters in Nagpur makes it an interesting Lok Sabha seat and 'Brahmin' Gadkari's win in 2014 surprised many political pundits because Brahmin voters in Nagpur are in minority.

The political analysts attribute his win to the 2014 Narendra Modi wave, but insiders also say that Gadkari also used Congress' infighting in his favour.

As the 2019 Lok Sabha polls are approaching, the Nagpur MP must be a happy soul because the factionalism in Nagpur Congress is again at its acme.

One faction comprises former Nagpur MP Muttemwar, Nagpur district unit president Vikas Thakre and Congress' Nagpur unit functionary Abhijeet Wanjari. The other faction has former Maharashtra Ministers Satish Chaturvedi, Anees Ahmad and Nitin Raut.

A 90-member delegation of Muttemwar faction, including Thakre and Wanjari, has been camping in New Delhi since Monday.

Talking to One India over phone, Wanjari said that "we have met senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Mukul Wasnik and demanded that either Muttemwar or Thakre should be made the Congress candidate from Nagpur Lok Sabha seat".

According to the sources, the Chaturvedi faction is also planning to visit the national capital in a day or two to thwart the plans of team Muttemwar.

Though Wanjari maintained that no dissident group will resort to backstabbing in the Lok Sabha polls, but it is hard to believe as Chaturvedi was expelled from the Congress in February last year for anti-party activities during 2017 civic polls.