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Runaway satrap, sibling rivalry and irate farmers bring focus on Madha

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"Sharad Pawar knew he'd even lose both elections and face. This is what made him announce he won't contest the Lok Sabha election," says water rights activist Anil Patil of Akluj in Solapur district.

"He understands the political game only too well. He must have gauged the mood and decided to back out in January 2012," says the activist who lays the blame for both the agrarian distress and the lack of development at the Maratha satrap's door.

"When Sharad Pawar contested from Madha Lok Sabha constituency in 2009 everyone hoped he'd change the face of the region like he has of his own hometown Baramati. No wonder he won with a gigantic margin of 3.15 lakh votes."

But Patil is not an isolated voice in the over 1,540 sq km constituency where the chief crop is sugarcane. Many farmers who lost their crops to the summer drought have faced a second back-breaking blow with the unseasonal hailstorm which wiped out the rabi crop, accuse him of apathy. "Our crops were getting scorched and destroying our hard work for months but Pawar saheb never intervened to help," remembers Akluj farmer Prabhakar Patil. "Only when the Bombay HC ordered, did water from Ujani dam get released a month later. This meant that all the claims of there not being enough water release was untrue," says the bitter farmer who lost over 57 acres of sugarcane by the time the water arrived.

With 1,558,442 voters, Madha, represented by NCP chief Sharad Pawar in 2009, is seeing a close fight between the Mohite-Patil brothers. While the NCP has nominated Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, his younger brother Pratapsinh is banking on his network and disappointed workers of NCP and Congress. Farmers' leader Sadha Khot is also among the 24 contenders.

The current nomination is seen as a final step in pulling Mohite-Patil out of doghouse his party had shunted him to. The fall from grace for this once-powerful leader (de-facto CM in Sudhakarrao Naik's tenure) of not only Solapur district, but also Western Maharashtra, was both quick and far reaching. The 2009 polls saw Malshiras become a reserved seat. Forced to shift to neighbouring Pandharpur, political factionalism, caste politics and tactical support for rival Bharat Bhalke (a candidate not endorsed officially by the NCP) by Ajit Pawar saw him defeated by a small margin. When his party refused to nominate him to the legislative council he almost vanished from public life. The first signs of a come-back came when NCP chief Sharad Pawar made him head the powerful Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation, and helped him get nominated to the Vidhan Parishad by the Maharashtra governor.

While Pawar couldn't be reached for comment, his candidate went to great lengths to explain, "Pawar saheb's understanding of agriculture in the region is better than anybody else. People badmouthing him are politically motivated," he told dna at the end of a public meeting in Phaltan.

Younger brother Pratapsinh disagrees, "The NCP's using my brother to shield Sharad Pawar from the ignominy of defeat and he's just taken their bait." Mocking his sibling he said, "He can't even speak Marathi properly, forget Hindi or English. What will he do in Parliament?"

Close associate of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana Raju Shetti, Sada Khot is meanwhile using technology to beat the competition. A short emotive film highlighting "the martyrdom" of two farmers when police opened fire to control a crowd of activists on November 12, 2012, circulated on WhatsApp has caught on in the region. "We wanted a cost effective way to take our message to the voter directly."

PROFILE
Constituency:
Madha
Formed after constituency delimitation in 2008.
Of its six legislative assembly segments, two are reserved for the SC category.

Total voters: 1,558,442
Male: 803,949
Female: 754,493

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