As Maharashtra goes to the second phase of Lok Sabha polls in eight constituencies –five in Vidarbha region and three in neighbouring Marathwada on Friday, the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will be slugging it out with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in three of the constituencies, while its senior partner BJP appears to have a tough task on hand to retain of its four sitting seats.
The Congress, which had failed to win even one seat from among the eight currently poll-bound seats in the 2019 polls, has something to cheer this time around, as it may end up bagging at least a couple of seats in the second phase of polling -- especially after Rahul Gandhi’s electioneering at Amravati where he managed to elicit enthusiastic response from a huge crowd gathered at his rally and the anti-incumbency factor at Nanded in the neighbouring Marathwada.
Like in the first phase of Lok Sabha polling in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Vidarbha held on April 19, there’s absolutely no wave of any kind in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim -- all in Vidarbha region, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani – in Marathwada region, where an approximate 1.5 crore voters will choose eight winners from 299 candidates in the fray.
In a way, it is going to be a litmus test for the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which is taking on the Shiv Sena (UBT) in the constituencies of Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim and Hingoli.
This is the second election that the Shiv Sena outfits are fighting against each after the Shiv Sena split after senior party leader Eknath Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray, walked out of the party along with 40-odd MLAs teamed up with the Opposition BJP to form a government in Maharashtra in June 2022. In the first election which was by-poll held on November 6, 2022, the Shiv Sena (UBT) had won the Andheri (East) Assembly seat.
Between the two Shiv Sena outfits, the Shinde Sena has an advantage over the Uddhav Sena as it has managed to retain the parent party’s symbol of Bow and Arrow. The Sena (UBT), which is reaching out to the voters with a new symbol “Mashaal” (Flaming Torch), has already had a run-in with the election authorities who have ordered the party to remove words “Jai Bhavani” and “Hindu” from the song brought by the party to promote its new party symbol.
In Buldhana, Shiv Sena (UBT), three-time Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav is taking on Narendra Khedekar of the Sena (UBT). In the neighbouring Yavatmal-Washim, the Shinde Sena has dropped its five-time MP Bhavana Gwali and fielded Rajashree Patil, wife of the party’s Hingoli MP Hemant Patil against Sanjay Deshmukh of the Sena (UBT). In Hingoli, the Shinde Sena has nominated Baburao Kolatkar against Nagesh Patil Ashtikar of the Sena (UBT).Amravati -- where actress-turned sitting MP Navneet Rana of the BJP is fighting an admittedly tough battle against LS poll debutant Balwant Wankhede of the Congress – has come into sharp focus after Rahul Gandhi’s rally on April 24
At the Amravati, Rahul --- in a retaliation to the bogey of “redistribution of wealth” used by the ruling BJP against his party, had said that the Narendra Modi government in its ten years’ rule had waived the loans worth a staggering Rs 16 lakh crore “22 to 25” super-rich persons and made them into billionaires and if the Congress-INDIA was voted to power, it would make crores of people in the country “lakhpatis”. Rahul’s identical speeches at Amravati and Solapur created buzz across the state, because his address went well with the women voters.
Much to the embarrassment of the BJP leadership , a video clip in which the party candidate from Amravati Navneet Rana saying at a rally --- that there is “no Modi wave”, that she was speaking the truth, it reflected the mood of the people on the ground and that the party will have to fight the election as if it was a gram panchayat election – went viral.
Friday’s polls will provide an opportunity to former chief minister and late Union Home Minister S B Chavan’s son Ashok Chavan, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, to prove his popularity in his home constituency of Nanded, where sitting BJP MP Prataprao Patil Chikalkar is pitted against against two-time sitting MLA Vasantrao Chavan of the Congress. Ashok Chavan is no longer a force to reckon with on his home turf. No wonder he is trying hard to redeem himself by ensuring the victory of the sitting BJP MP.
Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally at Nanded, had slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, by saying that Shehzada’ and his team were waiting for the polling to get over in Wayanad, from where he is contesting, to find another safe seat for him, and predicted that he (Rahul) will “run away” from Kerala like he did from Amethi. It remains to be seen if Modi’s staunch criticism of Rahul will have an impact on the voters in Nanded.
Akola is another seat which has evoked a lot of interest among the people across the seat, because Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of late B R Ambedkar and founder-chief of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), is seeking entry to Lok Sabha for the third time.
After unsuccessful efforts to rope him into the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Prakash Ambedkar has fielded seven out of the eight poll-bound seats While he himself is candidate in Akola, his brother Anandraj Ambedkar is contesting from Amravati as the Republic Sena nominee.
In Akola, Prakash Ambedkar is locked in a three-cornered contest against Anant Dhotre of the BJP and Abhay Kashinath Patil of the Congress. The Akola seat is currently held by the BJP in Lok Sabha.
Known for Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram, Wardha is another seat where keen contest is expected. Here, two-time sitting BJP MP Ramadas Tadas is battling it out with three-time MLA Amar Kale of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. He faces severe anti-incumbency. Intra-party dissent is also threatening to affect his poll prospects.
In Parbhani, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Sanjay Jadhav is sitting pretty as there is no ruling MahaYuti candidate here. He is taking on relatively weak Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) candidate Mahadev Jankar. Though the ruling MahaYuti has announced its support for him, it remains to be seen if the ruling alliance’s support will translate into votes in this constituency.
