BJP vs BJP in Pune: Nitin Gadkari wants Lok Sabha ticket for Bapat, Gopinath Munde rooting for Shirole

MUMBAI: The BJP, grappling with internal dissent over distribution of tickets for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is facing an unpleasant situation in Pune even before the candidates are announced. Former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has locked horns with senior party leader Gopinath Munde over selection of candidate from this constituency. While Gadkari wants Pune's BJP MLA Girish Bapat, believed to be close to him, to get the ticket, Munde wants the ticket to be given to the party's president in Pune Anil Shirole. Shirole had contested the last elections against Congress' Suresh Kalmadi and lost by a margin of around 25,000 votes.

The Munde camp has been claiming that since Shirole lost by just 25,000 votes, and given that Congress is in disarray because the party's not willing to give tickets to both Kalmadi and his wife Meera, Shirole has a good chance of winning this election. Gadkari's camp though wants a fresh face and says that Bapat is the man for the job. Munde is taking a keen interest to ensure that Shirole gets the nod even as his influence within the party is waning. BJP General Secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who was in the city recently to meet Uddhav Thackeray, said henceforth only the State BJP President Devendra Fadnavis would be in charge of alliances in Maharashtra. This is seen as a huge snub to Munde since he's the one who stitched an alliance between the Sena-BJP combine and the Republican Party of India and the Swabhimaan Shetkari Sanghatana.

To make matters worse, Prakash Javadekar, national spokesperson for the BJP, has also thrown his hat into the ring. Javadekar, who was snubbed by the party as he was not given a Rajya Sabha nomination, now wants to contest from Pune. However, BJP insiders say that Javadekar doesn't have a chance, and that the party is veering towards Gadkari's choice of Bapat from Pune.