MLC polls: BJP rebel Gokul Gite continues to be in fray

Nashik: The first face-to-face meeting of WRD minister Girish Mahajan, education minister Dada Bhuse and industries minister Uday Samant, with BJP rebel and MLC election’s independent candidate Gokul Gite failed to yield any result.

The ministers, later in a statement, said they hope to get a decision about Gite’s support to Mahayuti on Tuesday. Ever since the filing of his nomination, Mahajan and Samant have been trying their best to persuade Gite to withdraw from the election.

Their efforts failed and the last date of nomination withdrawal passed off insignificantly for Mahayuti and its candidate Sena member Narendra Darade. Since then, both the ministers are in Nashik trying to meet Gite in person.

While all these days Samant and Mahajan could only contact Gite over the phone, Monday was the first and the only face-to-face meeting between Mahajan, Samant, Bhuse and Gite at Nashik airport when the trio were to leave for Mumbai.

“The BJP leadership has been able to ask Prasad Hiray (another BJP rebel) to announce his unconditional support to the Mahayuti candidate. We welcome Hiray’s decision to support Darade. We are in final talks with Gite and hope for a good decision tomorrow,” a senior BJP office-bearer said after Samant and Mahajan left for Mumbai.

Earlier in the evening, Mahajan, while speaking to the reporters along with Hiray at a hotel in Nashik city, said, “We have won six seats unopposed. We are contesting 11 seats and are sure to win them hands down. The opposition will not win a single seat. We welcome Hiray’s decision as he has announced his support to the Shiv Sena candidate.”

Industries minister Samant said that once the Nashik issue was resolved successfully, the issue in Jalgaon, where the Sena candidate has rebelled against the Mahayuti’s BJP candidate, will also be resolved automatically.