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Pratibha son gets Cong ticket, not party support in Amravati

President Pratibha Patil’s son Rajendra Shekhawat may have won the Congress nomination for the Amravati Assembly seat in Maharashtra but here on the ground, there is very little he can cheer about.
Almost the entire local Congress leadership — from the block to the corporation level — appear to be rallying behind Sunil Deshmukh, sitting MLA and Minister who announced his candidature as an Independent after the party ignored him to accommodate Shekhawat.

Of the 21 Congress corporators, all but one — the only exception being Shekhawat’s brother Bablu — say they are with Deshmukh “come what may”. To back that claim, they held a meeting with Deshmukh today and said they were ready to face the consequences of rising in rebellion. A day before the filing of nomination papers, workers crowded Deshmukh’s campaign office while Shekhawat’s camp at the city Congress office wore a deserted look.

There is anger in the Deshmukh camp over the “shameless use of power” that ensured a nomination for Shekhawat aka Raosaheb. “What has the Shekhawat family done for Amravati? Devisingh Shekhawat was an MLA. Pratibhatai was a Minister for so many years. It took 20 years for the government to clear the Upper Wardha project that supplies water to the city though she was the Irrigation Minister. Deshmukh started work on 15 different projects in his ten years,” said District Central Cooperative Bank director Bharat Deshmukh.
“What is Raosaheb’s claim to fame? The president of an educational institute he got in inheritance?” asked Suresh Sorge, a member of the city Congress committee, referring to the Vidyabharati Shikhshan Prasarak Mandal. “Unlike most Vidarbha politicians, Deshmukh doesn’t own any educational institute and has a clean image,” he said.
Deshmukh, elected twice from Amravati, has a two-storey house in a narrow lane in Rukmini Nagar — very different from the palatial Rajasthani-style Shekhawat bungalow in Congress Nagar.

His supporters credit Deshmukh with Amravati’s flyovers and roads, underground drainage, sports complex, an SEZ and houses for the poor under different schemes. “We are with Deshmukh. He is concerned about the city’s development. I live in a Dalit locality. Go and ask anyone there. Deshmukh has been around for ten years now. Shekhawat has been here just for a year or so,” said Mayor Ashok Dongre.

Even those opposed to Deshmukh admit he has nurtured Amravati. “There is no doubt about his work. He has done a lot. But the party is above all. The overwhelming support he has today is because of the party. He shouldn’t have rebelled,” said Kishore Borkar who was denied a corporation ticket by Deshmukh in 2007.
On Shekhawat, most agree his strongest qualification is that he is the President’s son. But his supporters say “it is wrong to say he hasn’t worked his way up”.

“He worked as a campaigner in the elections of Pratibhatai and Devisinghji. Deshmukh asked for party ticket thrice, he got it all three times. Raosaheb sought it thrice, he did not get it even once. So what’s the big issue if he has got it now?” said Vishwas Deshmukh, president of the city Congress.

“He brought three trains to Amravati in no time while it took so many years to get the Geetanjali Express to stop in Amravati. The railway station was about to be closed but Pratibhatai’s intervention prevented it. It is now being developed as a model railway station. Amravati airport is also being developed. If this all can happen within one year, just think what he can do in five years as MLA,” said Vishwas Deshmukh.

Amol Jamnare, block president who also runs an MBA institute, said: “If Shekhawat becomes MLA, there will be a confluence of three powers — Pratibhatai, Devisinghji and Raosaheb. Just imagine what it would mean for Amravati.”