Lakhani has been at pains to put a lid on the chatter about his ties to the Sule family. Even as the wedding with Sule’s daughter is on for June 20, he is insistent that you don’t let the two worlds collide. His name coming forward for the MLC polls on June 18 is all about the optics and the plan of action.
Family link meets campaign discipline
You can’t avoid the mention of the Pawar clan, but Lakhani says it has no bearing on how he does his job. “Politics and family are two different things,” he was heard saying on a Marathi channel, and he made it clear both sides have their own way of thinking. Sule did come out to wish him well once he was in, and Lakhani isn’t reading into it. “Nothing out of the ordinary there,” he put it, in a move to make sure the wedding doesn’t become part of the political story.
Why the BJP bet on Lakhani
The party sees in Lakhani a man with the right kind of organisational know-how. The Nagpur industrialist is co-treasurer for the state unit and has been in the orbit of Nitin Gadkari and Devendra Fadnavis for some time. He was quick to thank them, along with PM Modi and Amit Shah, for having faith in him. Then there is the business side of it. As the head of Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd, he has a hand in the 24×7 water supply in Nagpur and other road and waste projects, which is part of the case the BJP is making for him.
Constituency calculus and the ‘outsider’ tag
In the Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli Local Authorities seat, you normally see someone with old roots in the area. Lakhani doesn’t hail from these parts, and some have been asking why he was made the pick. He has an answer for that. He has put in the hours through the Laxmanrao Mankar Trust in all three, from the hard-to-reach corners of Gadchiroli to the Gandhian heartland of Wardha. “I am not a stranger to these districts,” he said.
Ground game, message, and reach
Lakhani is putting himself out there as a man who gets things done. The idea is that people will vote for the one who can actually put welfare on the table, and he doesn’t think the size of the terrain will be a problem. His work extends past the boardroom. He is behind the Laxmanrao Mankar Trust, which has over 500 one-teacher schools in Vidarbha’s tribal belt, and he is also the face of the Maharashtra Badminton Association. It is a network that runs deep. If you want to know where he stands, Lakhani has been plain about it: – You keep your family and your politics apart – The voter wants to see schemes put in place – I have worked in this region before – I have no doubts we will win
Opposition reaction and pressure points
Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress Legislature Party has it in for the move, calling it evidence that the BJP would rather have an industrialist than a worker from the field. He claims the party’s late list is a sign of some second-guessing on their part.
Wadettiwar is confident the Congress will put up a full front. For the Chandrapur spot, they have Shailendra Agrawal, a Kisan Cell national secretary who has seen to several states.
What comes next
It is hard to miss the coincidence: the heat of the campaign for the 18th and the 20th when the nuptials are. Lakhani is of the mind that one won’t tangle with the other; private is private, and the election is the election.
He is looking at it as a chance to learn and have a fair contest. The question is whether his support from the top and his connections in the field will be enough to silence the ‘outsider’ talk in Wardha, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.
