Former CMs Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar are in the fray
Campaigning for 10 Lok Sabha seats in state which will go to the polls tomorrow for the second phase ended on Tuesday. Polling will be held for Buldhana, Akola, Amravati (Vidarbha region), Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur (Marathwada) and Solapur (western Maharashtra). Riding Modi wave, BJP and Shiv Sena had won nine seats during the 2014 elections while Nanded was bagged by the Congress.
The saffron alliance is making all efforts to retain its hold in all nine seats and has pulled out all resources to win Nanded. On the other hand, the Mahagathbandhan comprising Congress, NCP and 54 other parties and non-government organisations are trying to cash in on anti-incumbency against the BJP led government at the Centre and in the state by raking up core issues such as farmers' distress, impact of demonetisation on farming community and industry and slow pace of economic growth.
Former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who had lost to BJP in 2014 election, is locked in a triangular fight against BJP and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in Solapur. Shinde has made an emotional appeal to the voters saying that it will be his last election while VBA founder Prakash Ambedkar, who has received support from the Communist Party of India (M), is banking on the division in the Congress party's traditional vote bank comprising Lingayat, Muslims, Dalit and other backward classes. BJP has replaced its sitting MP Sharad Bansode by the religious leader Jai Siddheshwar Swami.
State Congress chief Ashok Chavan is facing a tough fight against BJP nominee Pratap Chikhalikar in Nanded. BJP and Shiv Sena are working hard for Chavan's defeat though the former chief minister is riding on the legacy of his father and former union home minister SB Chavan and the work done by him in the constituency.
Former union minister and Sena nominee Anand Adsul, who was elected twice from the reserved Amravati seat, has been fielded against Yuva Swabhiman Party candidate Navneet Rana who has support from the NCP. In Akola, VBA founder Prakash Ambedkar is taking on BJP MP Sanjay Dhotre and Congress nominee Hidayat Patel.
In Beed, which is the home district of BJP veteran and former union minister Gopinath Munde, the party has renominated Pritam Munde against NCP nominee Bajrang Sonawane. The BJP seems to have an edge in Beed as it holds five of the six Assembly segments that make up the parliamentary constituency. However, NCP has left no stone unturned with the party president Sharad Pawar, the leader of opposition in the state council Dhananjay Munde and a slew of other leaders have held a series of rallies in the constituency.
In Latur constituency, though the Congress has nominated Machindra Kamat and BJP has fielded Sudhakar Shrungare who is a Zilla Parishad member, the real contest is between the former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh's son Amit Deshmukh and the state labour minister Sambhajirao Patil-Nilangekar who was instrumental for BJP's consolidation in Latur district.
In Buldhana, Shiv Sena MP Pratap Jadhav will take on NCP nominee Rajendra Shingane. This is for the second time both are pitted against each other after 2009.
In Osmanabad, two cousins are pitted against each other. NCP has fielded Rana Jagjit Singh Patil against Shiv Sena nominee Om Raje Nimbalkar. Both candidates had previously faced each other in the 2014 Assembly polls which was won by Patil.
In Hingoli, after Congress MP Rajiv Satav backed out from the contest, the party has nominated Subhash Wankhede against Shiv Sena nominee Hemant Patil.
BLOWING CONCH SHELL
- The saffron alliance is making all efforts to retain its hold in all nine seats and has pulled out all resources to win Nanded
- Congress, NCP and their allies are trying to cash in on anti-incumbency against the BJP led government
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