NMC election 2012

Submit affidavit if fighting NMC polls on reserved seat

NAGPUR: District collector Saurabh Rao has amended his order for candidates of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections seeking caste validity certificates. Earlier, these candidates were required to submit the receipt of nominated forms purchased by them. Now they can submit an affidavit stating that they were seeking this certificate only for contesting NMC elections.

Rao had issued a circular making it compulsory to submit the receipt along with other required documents by 2pm on January 22 for zilla parishad (ZP) and panchayat samiti (PS) candidates and same time on January 23 for NMC candidates. However, political parties pointed out that as the sale of nomination forms for NMC elections would start only from January 24, the collector amended his order.

The NMC candidates not having caste validity certificates will have only two days to get an affidavit prepared.

Rao said that this condition was required to avoid rush of other persons for the certificate. "We had a lot of problems dealing with large number of applications in last elections."

The Mumbai high court recently had empowered the district collectors to deal with the candidates who did not caste validity certificates. Many candidates contesting from reserved category have been disqualified in the past when their caste certificates were found to be invalid. This led to by-polls and unnecessary burden on administration and tax payers. Many NMC by-polls had to be held when caste certificates of Halba corporators who had contested from seats reserved for STs were found to be invalid.

4050 EVMs from Nagpur to other districts

The State Election Commission (SEC) has directed Nagpur district administration to provide 4,050 excess electronic voting machines (EVMs), available with it, to five neighbouring districts. This is a part of the SEC's exercise to provide requisite number of machines to all districts. Amravati district will be given 1,100 EVMs, Chandrapur - 900, Buldhana - 400, Wardha - 750 and Yavatmal - 900. In Vidarbha Akola and Washim districts also have excess EVMs.

SEC has directed that these EVMs should be shifted only after doing data entry in EVM tracking software. The total requirement of EVMs for local body elections as on date is 1,30,000.

No reservations in using reservations

NAGPUR: With less than a month left for the municipal corporation elections, hectic lobbying is on for tickets in all the political parties. After the prabhag system in place, the city is now divided into 72 prabhags comprising 145 wards. Many corporators have lost their wards due to reservation for women, SC, ST and OBC candidates. Now, they are scouting for new wards, with parties likely to "rehabilitate" many of them.

Sitting corporator Manoj Sangole, whose ward has now been reserved for SC woman, is likely to field his wife Savita Sangole from the ward, while he is trying to seek ticket to contest from the neighbouring open ward on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket, which is in prabhag number 5.

Just a month before, Sangole was expecting ticket from NCP. In fact, he was asking for four tickets - two each from prabhag number 2 and 5, respectively - which the party denied. If Sangole fails to get all the four tickets from NCP, then he plans to contest election as independent.

Political sources, said that Sangole, wanting to teach a lesson to sitting RPI corporator (Nari ward number 2) Heera Gedam, is fielding his wife. Gedam had reportedly slapped Sangole over a trivial issue. Angry over the humiliation meted out to him, Sangole is deliberately fielding his wife, the source added.

Denying all the allegations, Sangole said that he had plans to develop the otherwise neglected North Nagpur which badly needs proper civic amenities.

During his two terms as corporator, Sangole became famous for the work that he did in his ward. In the 2002 elections, he contested from prabhag number 5. "During my 2002-2007 tenures, I brought about lot of development in my area. This will definitely help me contest from the similar prabhag," Sangole claimed. Interestingly, Sangole is also fielding one of his supporters Rakesh Nikose along with his wife.

"During my five year tenure as Nalanda Nagar corporator, I developed NMC's Kapil Nagar school, a library and constructed cement roads. My ward (no. 8 which now falls in prabhag number 2) was considered the most neglected. I have plans to construct a swimming pool and a skating ring for NMC students," Sangole claimed. All the work done in the past will help the duo (Savita Sangole and Rakesh Nikose) win the civic polls as people will consider the work done before casting their vote, he added.

Sitting RPI (A) corporator Prakash Gondane, who will be contest on Congress ticket from prabhag number 5, said that Sangole was no competition to him. "Considering the amount of development work done, people will definitely vote in my favour," Gondane claimed.

NMC elections: Seat-sharing impasse

continues

NAGPUR: The impasse over seat-sharing between the Congress-NCP as well as the BJP-Shiv Sena continued on Tuesday with only a week left for opening of nomination filing for the February 16 elections to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). Apparently each of the political combination was waiting for its prospective ally to blink first to come to terms with the pre-poll alliance.

"No formal talks were held on Tuesday though the informal channels were open and communications were exchanged," said Vilas Muttemwar, AICC general secretary and in-charge of the Congress panel tasked to finalize the matter. NCP city unit President Ajay Patil also confirmed that talks were at a standstill for the day. "Congress is a bigger party and has an upper hand in the city. But if it sincerely wants to have a pre-poll alliance with us, it should treat us with the respect we deserve," said Patil.

At the end of the last round of talks, the North Nagpur assembly segment emerged as the stumbling block. Congress MLA and EGS minister Nitin Raut has taken a rather aggressive stand opposing any sharing of seats with the NCP in that constituency. His supporters gathered in front of his house and supported his stand of opposing the alliance with NCP.

NCP has was welcomed it and said it was ready to contest on its own in North Nagpur if the Congress conceded 28 seats in rest of the five assembly segments.

With the leadership of the Congress as well as the NCP firm on having a pact this time so as to unitedly fight the BJP-Sena-RPI combination, Raut may have to bow down sooner or later.

In fact senior leaders are already unhappy that it was on Raut's insistence that the Lokmanch party of Atal Bahadur Singh was roped in and offered seats in north Nagpur. What has caused serious heartburn to Congress workers is that the Lokmanch candidates would contest on the Congress symbol. Several Congress workers in a rebellious mood over the Lomanch factor feel that now Raut is opposing NCP pretending to protect his staunch followers' interests.

The BJP and Shiv Sena also kept away from talks. City BJP chief Anil Sole was on a pilgrimage to Mahur. Sources said seat sharing could be finalized by Thursday and the first lot of candidates released the next day. Sena, which had initially demanded 51, rejected an offer of only 14 at the last round of talks.

Source-Times of India