Splitting of parties, clan prestige loom large ahead of Phase 3 in Maharashtra
The Mahayuti alliance is straining every sinew to obliterate the inuence of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition in the seats; prestige of Maharashtra’s most inuential political clans — the Pawars, the Ranes, the Shindes, the Tatkares — hang in the balance i
he upheaval in Maharashtra’s politics following vertical splits within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena, coupled with clan rivalry and conicts within the ruling and Opposition alliances, looms large in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election.
Like a John le Carré Cold War thriller, the principals on these 11 Lok Sabha seats (including those in the prosperous ‘sugar belt’ districts), which go to the polls on May 7, have switched sides with bewildering rapidity, rendering the contest in this phase unpredictable owing to the personality-centric politics that have prevailed here.
Amid a maze of byzantine intrigue, the prestige of State’s most inuential political clans — the Pawars (Baramati), the Ranes (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg), the Shindes (Solapur), and the Tatkares (Raigad) — hangs in the balance in a string of high-prole contests.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance (the BJP along with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit
TPawar’s NCP faction) is straining every sinew to obliterate the inuence of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in these seats — the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) in Baramati, Madha, and Satara; the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) in RatnagiriSindhudurg, Raigad, and Dharashiv; and the Congress in Latur, Solapur, Kolhapur and Sangli.
The Baramati Lok Sabha ght is microcosmic of the third phase, where one of the keenest electoral showdowns in the country has political rookie Sunetra Pawar (the Mahayuti’s candidate) squaring-o¡ against her sister-in-law Supriya Sule, seeking re-election for the fourth time.
After Ajit Pawar’s adhesion to the ruling alliance in 2023, the BJP nally sees a chance in storming the hitherto impregnable bastion of the Pawar clan, long considered the sa¡ron party’s holy grail in its mission to win 45 of the State’s 48 Lok Sabha seats.
Pawar clash
Both Ajit Pawar and his uncle Mr. Sharad Pawar have indulged in frantic canvassing for their respective candidates, with Mr. Ajit Pawar holding out the lure of Central funds owing directly to Baramati in the future, while the 83-year-old Mr. Pawar senior uses his emotional pull to combat his rebellious nephew.
Though in his twilight years, Mr. Sharad Pawar, with his deft manoeuvring, has made things tough for the BJP-Mahayuti in Madha (in Solapur) by weaning away the politically inuential Mohite-Patil clan from the BJP over to his side and elding Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil as the MVA’s candidate.
Mr. Mohite-Patil takes on the BJP’s sitting Madha MP Ranjitsinh Naik-Nimbalkar.
In the Konkan, things are not exactly balmy for the BJP and the Shinde faction of the Sena as Union Minister Narayan Rane, elded from the key Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat, risks political oblivion if he loses the contest against the Sena (UBT) candidate, incumbent MP Vinayak Raut. The seat was a erce bone of contention between the
BJP and its ally, the Shinde faction of the Sena.
In Raigad, Mr. Ajit Pawar’s lieutenant and sitting MP, the NCP’s Sunil Tatkare, faces a tough ght as he squares o¡ with his old rival, former Union Minister and Sena (UBT) leader Anant Geete, whom he had beaten in the 2019 Lok Sabha Election by a thin margin.
Shivaji’s descendants
In the sugar heartland of Satara and Kolhapur, the Mahayuti and the MVA have elded direct descendants of the legendary Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Udayanraje Bhosale (the 13th direct descendant of Shivaji) is the BJP’s choice for Satara, while Shahu Chhatrapati (Shivaji’s 12th direct descendant) is the MVA’s choice for Kolhapur.
The selection makes strategic sense given the deep reverence of the electorate towards the Maratha royals.
They have also been propped up with an eye to cashing on the Maratha agitation, which was strongly backed by both Mr. Bhosale and Mr. Shahu Chhatrapati, and both are respected by quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil.
Hatkanangale, the other Lok Sabha seat in Kolhapur,
sees MP Dhairyashee Mane of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena take on Satyajeet Patil of the Sena (UBT).
However, the real contest here is between Mr. Mane and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana chief Raju Shetti, the ‘third force’ in the fray and a former two-term MP.
Contesting independently, Mr. Shetti is attempting to reclaim lost ground by taking on the rich sugar barons by focusing on farmers’ woes, poor agricultural produce, and water issues.
In the doddering Congress bastion of Solapur, the MVA’s Praniti Shinde, daughter of veteran Congressman Sushilkumar Shinde, faces the BJP’s Ram Satpute. This time, Ms. Shinde, bolstered by Sena (UBT), is said to be in a strong position.
Yet, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent visits to western Maharashtra, harping on the scrapping of Article 370 and raising the bogey of the Congress awarding OBC reservation to Muslims, this region will see a settling of scores on May 7 as many have not taken kindly to the splits engineered by the sa¡ron party within the Shiv Sena and the NCP.