Mumbai: In the second phase of general elections, eight constituencies in Maharashtra are set for polling. Spread across the state’s parched Vidarbha and Marathwada region, these seats have myriad challenges.
The eight constituencies are Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha and Yavatmal in the Vidarbha region, and Washim, Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani in Marathwada.
Both these regions have repeatedly made it to national headlines for the high number of farmers suicides. Just between January and October last year, 2,366 farmers killed themselves in Maharashtra.
This data, made available by the state minister for relief and rehabilitation Anil Patil to the state assembly, shows that most of these deaths were recorded from Marathwada and Vidarbha, pointing to the acute distress faced by the farmers here.
Years of scanty rain and drought-like conditions have added to the farmers’ woes and the voters here feel unheard election after election.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Sudhakar Pandav, a farmer from Barswadi in Amravati district, says the farming community here feels let down by both the changing climatic conditions and what he said were the government’s anti-farmer policies.
“Farming has only become tougher over the last decade here [in Vidarbha]. I own five acres of land, where I grow soybeans, wheat and gram. But I’m troubled, because we’re not getting fair prices for these crops,” he says, indicating that the farmers here are compelled to sell their crops below minimum support prices (MSP).
The MSP for cotton is Rs 7,020 a quintal, but farmers in Vidarbha are fetching Rs 6,000 per quintal.
Similarly, the MSP for soybean is Rs 4,600 per quintal, but farmers in the region are forced to sell it for as low as between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000.
Pandav says the money they earn is far less than what they spend on cultivation.
“Most farmers here are under massive debt and we can’t see any plausible option to get out of the debt cycle,” he adds.
The winter session of the Maharashtra assembly, like always, was held in Nagpur in December last year. The two-week-long session, however, focussed on only internal party dynamics and parties trading charges with each other.
The concerns of the region, especially of the farming community, had no mention in the session.
“That shows the seriousness of our representatives from the region,” says Dattaram Bikkad, a farmer of a small land holding in Wardha’s Warud village.
Bikkad belongs to the same Teli community as his two-time Lok Sabha MP, Ramdas Tadas.
A week ago, prime minister Narendra Modi visited the constituency to campaign for Tadas. Since then, Tadas’s campaign has focussed entirely on Modi’s mission to win 400-plus seats in this general election.
Tadas, however, is faced with numerous challenges, including anti-incumbency and internal resistance within the party. He will face a strong fight from the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar faction)’s candidate, Amar Kale.
The fight in Amravati, however, has been the most dramatic. Just hours before finalising the nominations, the Supreme Court upheld BJP candidate Navneet Rana’s caste certificate.
Rana, an independent candidate in the 2019 elections, joined the BJP only days before the elections. She was backed by both the Congress and the undivided NCP then, and she won with a thumping majority.
Recently while campaigning for Congress candidate Balwant Wankhede, Sharad Pawar apologised for supporting her candidature in 2019.
The Congress has been contesting from the region since 1998.
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The Mahayuti, comprising the ruling BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), were caught in an ugly tussle over this constituency. Both the BJP and Shinde had laid a claim on this seat and both were unrelenting.
Rana’s supporters have openly expressed their disappointment over her joining the BJP just before the elections and Shinde’s party workers have refused to participate in her campaign.
Senior Shinde Sena leader and former MP Anandrao Adsul openly expressed his disagreement over Navneet’s candidature from Amravati. Adsul wanted the ticket for himself.
In her constituency, voters say Rana has only been interested in staying in the limelight. Two years ago, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power, Rana and her husband Ravi Rana had raked up a huge drama by chanting the Hanuman Chalisa in front of Uddhav Thackeray’s residence, for which they were arrested.
Swapnil Sable, a farmer from Maldur in Amravati district, says Rana has never paid any interest in understanding what is ailing her constituency.
“Farming in Vidarbha has become too expensive because of inflation. With GST on farm produce, the essential things we need for farming are now costly. We struggle to afford fertilisers and seeds. But you will never see our issues being raised in parliament.”
Of the eight Lok Sabha seats, the ruling Shinde Sena is contesting in three seats, while the BJP in four seats.
Meanwhile, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has been allocated only one seat, and that too has gone to its ally, the Rashtriya Samaj Party.
On the opposition front, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena is contesting from four seats, the Congress in three and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP in one seat.
Like Amravati, another seat in Marathwada, Nanded, has turned into an ego hassle for the BJP. After former chief minister Ashok Chavan quit the Congress to join the BJP, the latter is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure its candidate, Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar Patil, wins the electoral battle.
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Chavan, although a strong leader from the region, left many of his supporters unhappy after he joined the BJP earlier this year. However, the Congress has fielded a fresh candidate, Vasant Chavan, from the constituency, so the fight is no more one-sided.
Modi as well as other party leaders like Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda have all campaigned for the BJP candidate from the region. This, some local leaders say, had to be organised only to ensure that the party cadres work well with Ashok Chavan and ensure that the party’s candidate wins.
In the Buldhana constituency, the electoral battle is between the two Shiv Senas. The Shinde faction has gone with three-time Lok Sabha MP Prataprao Jadhav, who had jumped ship along with Shinde. The Sena (UBT) has nominated a former zilla parishad chief and staunch Thackeray loyalist.
Akola constituency has an interesting ongoing battle between three key candidates – Anup Sanjay Dhotre of the BJP, Abhay Kashinath Patil of the Congress and Prakash Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi.
For the past four elections, this seat has remained with the BJP. This time, however, allegations of parivarwad (dynasticism) have been raised against Dhotre, son of four-time MP Sanjay Dhotre.
