Uttam Khobragade lashes out at RPI: Surrendered to Sena, BJP

Uttam Khobragade, retired IAS officer and father of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade who was at the centre of an ugly India-US spat over her arrest in a visa fraud case, has slammed the Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party of India (RPI) for surrendering a sure-shot constituency in Maharashtra to the Shiv Sena-BJP. Khobragade, who had been eyeing the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat and was expecting a ticket from the RPI to contest from this Dalit dominated constituency, has said the RPI has sold out he interests of the community by giving up the reserved seat of Ramtek and settling instead for the Satara LS seat, an open category seat that the RPI stands no chance in.

Khobragade was the aspiring Lok Sabha candidate for Ramtek constituency  in Nagpur district for the upcoming elections. However, the Shiv Sena refused to give the seat to the RPI during seat-sharing discussions between the alliance partners and has fielded its candidate Krupal Tumhane from here.

“The Shiv Sena has given the Satara seat to the RPI which is of no  use. The sitting Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Udayanraje Bhosale  from Satara is definitely going to win the election irrespective of  whether he contests from NCP, Congress, Sena-BJP or as an Independent. It shows that the RPI has surrendered to the alliance and is not able to get its share. Ideally, the RPI should have got a Lok Sabha seat reserved for Dalits from the Shiv Sena-BJP,” Khobragade told  Firstpost.

He added that he intends to contest from Ramtek anyway, as an  independent candidate. “I am definitely going to contest  the Lok Sabha election from Ramtek constituency as an independent  candidate. I was only waiting for the Lok Sabha seat sharing talks between Shiv Sena-BJP and RPI to get over. Since the Shiv Sena has refused  to give Ramtek constituency to RPI, I will now go ahead with campaigning as an independent candidate,” Khobragade said.

He further said that he is not keen on contesting from any other party  including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). “I had talks with them but they have no influence in Maharashtra. So, I plan to contest as an independent,” explained Khobragade.

At present, the Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency is represented by the  Congress’s Mukul Wasnik, who won by 16,700 votes defeating the Shiv Sena’s candidate Krupal Tumane in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

While Ramdas Athawale was unavailable for comment, RPI leaders said that they will talk with Shiv Sena to exchange the Satara seat  with another Lok Sabha seat. “We insisted on the Satara seat as we were in talks with the sitting MP to get him into the RPI but our attempts failed. Now, we will talk with Shiv Sena to exchange the Satara seat  with another Lok Sabha seat,” said a senior RPI leader.

He added that it is up to Khobragade whether to contest Lok Sabha  election as an independent. “We had decided to field him from the Ramtek seat but unfortunately we didn’t get that seat,” added the leader.