Denied renomination, Anna Dange quits BJP

mumbai: veteran bjp leader anna dange has left the party with which he was associated for long. he said he was quitting the party it had stopped taking any interest in issues like drought and unemployment. mr dange’s 18-year tenure maharashtra’s upper house comes to an end on wednesday. he will retire along with eight other members. mr dange’s speech was awaited eagerly since it was generally anticipated that he would blast the bjp for refusing him renomination.whenever he hit out at the bjp, there were loud cheers from the treasury benches. mr dange, who is a prominent member of the dhangar community which has a sizable presence the state, spoke at length but did not mention any bjp leader name. however, it was clear that the targets of his attack were union minister pramod mahajan and maharashtra bjp leader gopinath munde. mr dange recalled how he started working for the then jan sangh 50 years ago in sangli district. deputy chief minister chhagan bhujbal, former minister shivajirao deshmukh, shiv sena’s shishir shinde and ravindra mirlekar, bjp’s nishigandha mogal, congress member ramdas phutane and independent member lal singh rathod are the other members of the council whose terms end on wednesday. mr bhujbal and mr deshmukh have been re-elected to the house. there was widespread expectation in sena circles that mr shinde would be renominated to the council by the party leadership. he had played an active role in strengthening the sena in the city. incidentally, he had dug up the cricket pitch at wankhede stadium a few years ago to prevent a match between india and pakistan.