Scions of 2 political dynasties lock horns in Latur
Cong’s Deshmukh has major influence in Latur city; Sambhaji led BJP to victory in previous polls
has 49 corporators in the 70-member body.
“BJP has put all its might behind Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar. Heavyweight party leaders including chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari are holding rallies for the campaign. In comparison, however, apart from Patangrao Kadam and Balasaheb Thorat, no major Congress leaders have organised rallies to counter the BJP’S campaign,” said a local Congress leader. “The BJP absorbed candidates from all other parties, irrespective of their background, only on the basis of their chances of being elected. This move may benefit them during the elections,” he added.
The Congress leader, however, said that voting patterns in rural parts of the district council and urban parts in the municipal corporation cannot be compared as the Deshmukh family still holds the fort in Latur city.
Muslims, Lingayats and Marwaris form significant portions of the voter base in Latur. But the Muslim voters are likely to be divided between AIMIM and Congress. Also, Congress may lose its traditional Lingayat voter base as the BJP had installed a lingayat corporator as president of the district council last month.
“We have a fair chance of winning more than the existing number seats and all the party leaders are fighting towards it in unison,” said Amit Deshmukh. “Let us not project it like a fight between two families as Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil is in Congreess and Sambhaji Nilangekar is heading the BJP campaign. We are leading the race in terms of candidates, campaign and people’s response.” Shailesh Lahoti, city president of BJP said, “We have been getting tremendous response from across all castes and communities. Sambhaji has done a lot of work for the public in the last two years and it will help us winning at least 41 seats.”
Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar was not available for comments.
Maharashtra will be the first state in India to launch a special awareness drive to ensure that its transgender citizens register as voters in greater numbers.
The state branch of the Election Commission of India (ECI) will launch the drive on April 15, celebrated as Third Gender Day.
According to ECI officials, though there are approximately more than 10 lakh transgender people in the state, only about 1,700 are registered voters.
The ECI has prepared a twoand-a-half-minute film, which will be run in 400 theatres four times a day over the next week.the commission has also put up posters on two 12-rake local trains asking transgenders to register as voters.
“A major section of the transgender community lives in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and travels by train. They said films are a major source of entertainment. Keeping this in mind, we will organise a campaign to reach out to them,” said Shirish Mohod, deputy chief electoral officer, Maharashtra
He added, “We will meet NGOS and community members on April 15, commemorated as Third Gender Day. It was on this day in 2014 that the Supreme Court gave these people the status of a ‘third gender’.”
“Not a single person had registered as transgender in 2012. Today, there are 1,700. In several cases, they do not register at all, citing discriminatory treatment,” he said.
“Maharashtra has a welfare board for transgenders but no one has been appointed to it yet. We have not been able to effectively place our demands before the government. This is why we do not have accurate figures on transgenders,” said Laxmi Tripathi, who heads several organisations working for the community.
Prime Minister Naren dra Modi on Friday launched a low-cost housing project that aims to provide houses to 42,055 families across Maharashtra.
These 21 projects will be spread across the state and com prise houses worth Rs10 lakh for the poor and underprivi leged.
These houses will be con structed in places like Bhan darli and Goteghar in Thane dis trict, Talegaon in Pune, Adgaon in Nashik and Jalna in Auran gabad.
These projects are a part of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-housing for all Scheme launched by the Central Gov ernment, which provides highly subsidised houses to poor peo ple.