Mayoral race heats up: Masked men storm bus in Maharashtra’s Wardha, try to ‘kidnap’ 20 Congress corporators

NAGPUR/WARDHA/CHANDRAPUR: As the race for mayor heats up across the state’s local bodies, twelve masked men tried to storm a bus near a toll booth in Wardha district and tried to whisk away 20 newly elected Congress corporators of Chandrapur municipal corporation (CMC) early Thursday.The corporators were on their way to Nagpur divisional commissioner’s office to register as a group — a mandatory requirement. With Congress being the largest party in the corporation but still short of majority, each corporator is valuable.Many corporators were jolted out of sleep to find themselves in a scuffle with masked men. However, the corporators were able to push the intruders out of the bus, aided by the quick arrival of their mentor and Congress strongman Vijay Wadettiwar ’s supporters who were travelling in different vehicles behind the bus.Thereafter, until cops arrived, verbal attacks were exchanged with neither side making physical moves. A video at this point shows masked men standing outside the bus while someone from inside is shouting in Hindi. “You are attacking tribal and Dalit women. Is this what you do?” As police came, the assailants drove off. However, one of their aides was caught and handed over to Wardha police, which has lodged an FIR.Wadettiwar later told TOI , “It was an attempt to kidnap our corporators to scuttle our bid to power in CMC.” Chandrapur’s Congress unit recently witnessed a public spat between Wadettiwar and local Congress MP Pratibha Dhanorkar, with both keen to put their supporter in the mayor’s chair.