Mumbai: The arid, backward region of Marathwada and the lush sugar-rich belt of western Maharashtra, besides a part of coastal Konkan, are set for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections to 19 seats here tomorrow.
A lot is at stake for all the major political parties with a total of 358 candidates, including independents, and several national level political bigwigs attempting to retain their influence in the second round.
Like Vidarbha, where polling was held April 10 with 62.37 percent turnout, the western Maharashtra-Marathwada regions have also reeled under the impact of the unseasonal rains and hailstorms in the past couple of months.
The electorate in Marathwada, already sulking due to lack of development or major industries there, has borne the onslaught of nature and neglect by the authorities.
In contrast, the pampered western Maharashtra — the sugar bowl of the state — is a picture of greenery and all-round development, making it a target of politicians from other less developed regions like Marathwada.
The constituencies going to the polls are: Ahmednagar, Baramati, Beed, Hathkanangle, Hingoli, Kolhapur, Latur, Madha, Maval, Nanded, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Pune, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Shirur, Shirdi, Solapur, Sangli and Satara.
A total electorate of around 32.3 million will cast their votes in 36,879 polling stations spread across these constituencies which comprise the hot plains in Marathwada, the lush green fields of western Maharashtra, the cool climes of hill-stations like Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Lonavala and Khandala and the breezy Arabian Sea coast.
Among the big names in the fray here is Congress’s union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur. In Beed there is Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gopinath Munde who is widely tipped to assume a major national role in case the NDA comes to power, and in Baramati there is the Nationalist Congress Party’s Supriya Sule, daughter of party chief Sharad Pawar who is expected to play a leading role at both the centre and state levels.
There is also the Congress’ former chief minister Ashok Chavan from Nanded. Despite the blot of the Adarsh Society scam, he is on his way to rehabilitation and poised to become the party’s ‘Maratha Face’ in state politics after the demise of the late Vilasrao Deshmukh two years ago. Like Nagpur in the first phase, where BJP ex-president Nitin Gadkari had to contend with 32 candidates, BJP’s Munde in Beed will face competition from 39 candidates.
Munde’s chief rivals are a former protege and now NCP strongman and minister Suresh Dhas and Aam Aadmi Party’s well-known Marathi actor Nandu Madhav trying to wrest the prestigious seat.
Dhas is believed to have the backing of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar who would like Munde to bite the Beed dust in the tough fight.
IANS
