Shift in political equation may affect Assembly polls.
The Shiv Sena (SS) may have suffered its worst defeat in Mumbai-Thane, but the party has made significant inroads into western Maharashtra by winning three (Maval, Shirur and Shirdi) of the six seats it contested in the Lok Sabha polls.
The party getting a foothold in the traditional NCP-Congress bastion has the potential to change the political equations in the upcoming assembly polls. Western Maharashtra comprises Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Ahmednagar. The region has 12 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Although the Shiv Sena-BJP combine was elected in Maharashtra in 1995, it remained politically weak in this region. In fact, western Maharashtra has so far proved to be a stumbling block for the saffron combine in its efforts to gain power in the state.
With 70 assembly seats, the region holds key to power in the state. It has many sugar factories and other agro-based industries. Dominance on the economy of this region has helped the Congress and NCP to maintain political influence.
What is more significant is that Sena nominees managed to upstage the NCP candidates in Shirur and Maval. In Shirur, sitting Shiv Sena MP Shivaji Adhalrao-Patil got elected with a huge margin of 1,78,611 votes, while in neighbouring Maval, Gajanan Babar won with a considerable margin of 80,619 votes. The NCP had appointed political heavyweights, including state water resources minister Ajit Pawar and state finance minister Dilip Walse-Patil, to manage the campaign in both the constituencies.
In Shirdi, Bhausaheb Wakchaure of Sena defeated Republican Party of India (A) leader Ramdas Athavale. In two of the three others constituencies, the Sena nominees failed to win, but the votes they got are a clear indication of the party’s growing influence. In Satara, Purushottam Jadhav lost to Udayanraje Bhosale of NCP by a huge margin of 2,97,515 votes but managed to poll 2,35,068 votes. In Kolhapur constituency, Shiv Sena’s Vijay Devane came third but the 1,72,822 votes he got is worth taking note of.
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