Fast-fading NCP faces 'do or die' situation in Western Maharashtra

Satara: The politically influential western Maharashtra region, the bastion of the NCP, is set to witness the most interesting contests in the assembly polls that will decide the future of the NCP and Maharashtra’s politics.

The stakes are high for Sharad Pawar and his party as it is facing multiple challenges in the region in these elections.

Following the rout in the Lok Sabha election, many NCP leaders from the region have deserted the party and have joined either the Shiv Sena or BJP. Also the BJP’s alliance partners, the MP Raju Shetty led Swabhmani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) and Mahadev Jankar led Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, both of whom can boast of strong bases in the region, have posed a strong challenge to the Congress-NCP.

In 2009, NCP won 20 of the 58 seats in the region that comprises five districts- Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur. The congress had won 11 seats, BJP 10 and Shiv Sena 6.

The region has always stood by the Congress and NCP which control the majority of cooperative institutions such as sugar mills and district banks there. Also, both parties hold the rains in the local bodies in the region.

Surprisingly, in the Lok Sabha polls held in May, NCP won only four out of ten Lok Sabha seats including Pawar’s hometown seat, Baramati, from the region, which came as a shocker for Pawar. While BJP won three and Sena two, congress could not even win a single seat in the region. The Congress also lost its traditional Sangli Lok Sabha seat, which it had never lost to BJP.

Still, senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister continues to maintain that the NCP is going all out to increase its tally in the assembly polls and hopes to emerge as the largest party in the region in the multi-cornered contest.

“We have done lot of development work in the region. We are confident of retaining our bastion and will continue to emerge as the largest party in the region,” said a NCP leader.

The NCP leaders admit that they had suffered a setback during the Lok Sabha elections. But, the Modi factor will not have any impact on the assembly polls, say NCP leaders.

Congress is banking on the clean image of the former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in the region. In the Lok Sabha polls, it lost all three seats it contested. “Chavan’s clean image is our strong point. Many surveys have shown that the people have given first preference to Chavan as Chief Minister of the state. We hope that this will translate into votes and will help the Congress in winning the assembly polls,” said Anandrao Patil, member of legislative council and Congress district president of Satara, speaking to Firstpost.

So far, BJP and Shiv Sena have failed to make inroads into the Congress-NCP bastion. However, Sena-BJP has now inducted many Congress-NCP leaders who have strong local influence in the region that is likely to go against the Congress-NCP in the assembly polls.

The Sena and BJP are targeting NCP, alleging corruption amounting to around Rs 70,000 crores in the irrigation projects and the party’s failure in taking necessary measures to stop farmers’ suicides. “I am surprised that while he has been Agriculture Minister, 3700 farmers have committed suicides in 5 years. Had Sharad Pawar had taken the right steps, farmers wouldn’t have suffered,” Modi said in a rally in Sagli in last week.

“The cracks have appeared in the NCP’s bastion during the Lok Sabha election. Also, the winning margin of NCP has been reduced drastically. It clearly indicates that the people agree with the Congress-NCP’s failure in addressing farmers’ issues. Now, we will ensure that most of the Congress-NCP candidates are defeated in this election,” said Sadabhau Khot, state president of SSS, which has a strong base in the farmers’ community in the region.

The key issues in the assembly elections in the region include a loss of crop and horticulture due to drought and hailstorm, corruption in cooperative sector, incomplete irrigation projects, road toll among other problems.

Apart from these key issues, the Dhangar (shepherd community) reservation issue is likely to play a major role. The Dhangars had made Baramati, the hometown of Sharad Pawar, as the epicentre of their agitation in July, demanding the ST category reservation status for the community. The community believes that NCP chief Sharad Pawar has played with the community’s feelings for more than two decades and has kept the issue pending. Mahadev Jankar, prominent Dhangar leader, has has a strong base in the region which is likely to dent the Congress-NCP bastion.

Jankar, who contested the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in May, had given a tough fight to Supriya Sule, NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter. Sule’s victory margin dipped to 69,000 votes from 3.4 lakhs in 2009. “Pawar has cheated the community by not giving us our rightful reservation as per the constitution. So, we are working hard to ensure that the NCP vanishes from the western Maharashtra map,” said Jankar.

The region will see some of the state’s VIP fights that include former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan from South Karad in Satara district, former ministers Harshwardhan Patil from Indapur in Pune and Patangrao Kadam from Palus in Sangli, NCP’s former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar from Baramati in Pune, former home minister RR Patil from Tasgaon-Kavathemahankal in Sagli and former state assembly speaker Dilip Valse Patil from Ambegaon in Pune, former ministers Jayant Patil from Islampur in Sangli and Shashikant Shinde from Koregaon in Satara.