Can Praniti avenge father’s defeat?
SOLAPUR: Textile town Solapur in western Maharashtra is witnessing a close fight between BJP MLA Ram Satpute and Congress MLA Praniti Shinde. With a comparatively favourable atmosphere for the Congress right now, Shinde is aiming to vindicate the defeats suffered by her father, ex-cm Sushilkumar Shinde, in the last two Lok Sabha polls.
Solapur, which goes to the polls on May 7, has been with the BJP for the last decade. It is among the very few seats in western Maharashtra where the deciding factor is the Lingayat community. Other issues include locals versus outsiders, development, communal polarisation and caste equations.
The Lok Sabha constituency is equally divided between urban and rural areas. Solapur North, Solapur South and Solapur Central cover the entire city while Mohol, Pandharpur and Akkalkot are the other parts of the district. The BJP has four Mlas—subhash Deshmukh, Vijay Deshmukh, Sachin Kalyanshetti and Samadhan Autade— while another ruling ally, the NCP(AP) has one MLA, Yashwant Mane. The Congress’ only MLA is Praniti Shinde from the Solapur Central assembly constituency.
Despite this, the BJP struggled to get a strong candidate for the seat after the party chose not to re-nominate sitting MP and Lingayat seer Jai Siddeshwar Mahaswami, who defeated Sushilkumar Shinde in the last election. It is believed that Mahaswami failed miserably in delivering results in his term. Mahaswami had defeated Sushilkumar in a three-corner fight by a margin of 158,000 votes, securing over 524,000 votes. Sushilkumar polled 366,000 votes but lost the battle because of the presence of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Prakash Ambedkar (170,000), which split the votes. This time, the VBA has no candidate in Solapur.
Smart city?
In 2014, it was the BJP’S Sharad Bansode who defeated Sushilkumar. There was unrest against Sushilkumar on the grounds that he failed to bring development to the constituency despite being Maharashtra’s chief minister and union home minister during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule. Taking this into consideration, the PM Modiled BJP government declared Solapur’s name in the first list of ‘smart city’ projects. It also incorporated Solapur Airport in the UDAN scheme which envisages regional air connectivity at cheaper prices.
However, Solapur did not see significant changes, as the smart city project was limited to a specific area. Its denizens believe that the city did not get anything from the project, as there is no visible major change in the city’s infrastructure and other amenities. Even after seven years, not a single flight has taken off from Solapur under the UDAN scheme.
The BJP is banking on PM Modi and his development agenda but the Congress is focusing more on local issues in which BJP MPS were lagging behind. The water crisis is still a major problem for the city and rural areas. “We get water only once in five days, sometimes seven days,” said the owner of a popular hotel in Solapur city. “We were happy that Solapur would become a smart city but there is nothing here yet to live up to that tag.”
Sachin Kalyanshetti, BJP MLA who also heads the BJP Solapur district unit, said that Modi’s name was the party’s trump card. “Praniti is trying to divert it to local issues but we have maintained our position, and they are finding it difficult,” he claimed. Fielding Satpute from Solapur candidate was Kalyanshetti’s suggestion.
Solapur constituency comprises around 35% Lingayats, 20% Padmashalis (OBC category), 15% to 20% Marathas, 15% to 20% Muslims and 10% to 15% scheduled castes. The Lingayat community is the determining factor when it comes to Solapur elections. The Padmashalis are a historically marginalized Telugu weavers’ caste which migrated to Solapur from Andhra Pradesh.
The BJP had attempted to poach Praniti and her father, as it wanted a Dalit face. But both rejected the offer even when many senior Congress leaders, including Ashok Chavan, keeled before the pressure. “Why would we join the BJP? We will live
here and die here,” said Shinde.
The party then zeroed in Satpute’s name, as he is an MLA from the Malshiras assembly constituency that is part of Solapur district. He was chosen as he is young, aggressive and from the backward class, BJP insiders said.
All the factors that helped the BJP in the last polls are missing this time. There is no VBA candidate—rahul Gaikwad, who said he did not want to divide the Dalit votes, decided to withdraw his candidature, leaving Ambedkar red-faced. The AIMIM, which is not partnering with the VBA this time, has also not fielded a candidate from Solapur after being pressured by the Muslim community not to, as this would have divided Muslim votes. The Congress has been hollering about reservation and democracy being in danger, saying the BJP will change the Constitution if elected for a third term. This is getting traction among both Dalits and Muslims.
The Congress is also making an issue of Satpute being an “outsider”, which is reportedly giving Praniti an edge over him.
“He is an outsider while I am one among you,” she stressed during a campaign rally. Countering this, Kalyanshetti said, “Satpute is from Solapur and not from any other district.”
It is believed that the Lingayat votes may get divided between the BJP and Congress this time, considering the unease among the community after the demolition of a chimney of the Siddheshwar Cooperative Sugar Factory run by Dharmaraj Kadadi, an influential Lingayat. The action was taken by the Solapur Municipal Corporation on the grounds that the chimney fell under the flying zone of Solapur Airport.
Kadadi had protested against the civic body’s action last year which, he claimed, caused him a loss of Rs 1,000 crore and prevented the factory from operating for the next two years. “It was unfortunate that an industry was closed down to accommodate a small number of people’s air travel needs,” he commented. Since a year has passed with no flight taking off from the airport, this has not gone down well with the Lingayats.
The BJP has also resorted to its polarising game by inviting Telangana MLA T Raja, known for his hate speech against Muslims, to campaign. On Saturday, T Raja held a rally for Satpute, where he claimed that Hindus were scared of admitting their religion and sporting a tilak on their forehead before 2014. He also issued a warning to the Muslim community: “There was a time when you people used to do jihad but if you try it now, Modi ji will shoot you.”