Ramdas Athawale Wants To Contest Lok Sabha Elections
Republican Party of India (Athawale) president and Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said he wants to contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra. A former Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha and currently a Rajya Sabha member, Athawale is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The former three-time Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai North-Central said he would discuss the matter with BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and PM Modi. He was speaking at a press conference in Bengaluru.
He also expressed his intention to contest from either Shirdi or Solapur, both reserved constituencies.
“My party does not have a single member in Lok Sabha. I am thinking to contest (2024 Lok Sabha) election from Shirdi or Solapur. I want to come to the Lok Sabha. I will discuss this with JP Nadda, Amit Shah and PM Modi, and decide about that,” Mr Athawale can be heard saying in a video posted by news agency Press Trust of India on Saturday.
Republican Party of India (Athawale), which has its origin in roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar, has been part of alliances from the right and centre in Maharashtra. Athawale was part of then Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance in the state till 2011. He had lost the elections from the Shirdi Lok Sabha constituency in 2009. His party, which joined their hands with then BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in 2011 for Mumbai local body elections, has been a part of NDA since then.
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He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2014 and was appointed the Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. According to political observers, political alliances believe that, having Athawale on their side will help them to get Dalit votes in Maharashtra, a crucial state in general elections which has 48 seats.
In recent times, reports have emerged that the Dalit leader, whose political career is tanking these days when it comes to electoral politics, is planning to revive Dalit Panthers, a militant organisation he was part of in 1970s. The organisation, which practices radical politics, was inspired by the thought of Dr Ambedkar, Karl Marx and Jyotirao Phule, and its aim was to combat caste discrimination in a radical way.
