Suresh Kalmadi’s Pune poll walk hits detractor hurdle

Out on bail recently, suspended Congress MP, Suresh Kalmadi, may get to call the shots in the upcoming civic polls. And, this has not gone down well with many leaders within the party’s city unit.

With senior leaders in the city guarded in their response to Kalmadi’s bail, it is being viewed as the Congress high command’s go-ahead to the veteran leader to work out strategies for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections.

While Kalmadi’s jubilant supporters feel that he will ‘bring in money power’ to take Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, Ajit Pawar, head on, the MP’s detractors are restless and are said to be complaining to the party high command.

A highly-placed source in the Congress said that Kalmadi critics in the party have drawn the party high command’s attention to the celebrations by his supporters at Congress Bhavan soon after he was granted bail on Thursday.

They have expressed concerns that such kind of behaviour would reduce the party’s prospects in the February civic polls.

A source said that as the interviews of aspiring Congress candidates are over, the detractors will press the party’s election observers to send a report against Kalmadi and his supporters.

However, Kalmadi seems to be unfazed by all this.

Although there is no word about his return to the city from New Delhi, his supporters say that he has been getting minute-to-minute updates on all the developments. He even issues instructions to them over the phone.

At Congress Bhavan, stories are doing the rounds about how Kalmadi had called up a corporator, known to be his supporter, on Friday morning and asked him why he was still at home when he was expected to be canvassing.

For the past many years, Kalmadi had managed to create a coterie of his supporters within the party, who were rewarded with assured tickets. Also, he had systematically managed to sideline leaders whom he perceived as threats.

His arrest in April last year had brought the infighting within the party and the lack of parallel leadership in the open.

The power vacuum, created by his arrest, had made many of his detractors to try their luck for the top slot. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had to make repeated visits to the city to diffuse the leadership crisis ahead of the civic elections.