4 min readMumbaiJul 16, 2023 02:12 PM IST
First published on: Jul 8, 2023 at 11:53 AM IST
On Saturday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar will kickstart his Maharashtra tour by holding a rally at Yeola in Nashik district, the constituency of rebel party leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
Pawar’s choice of Yeola, a small town located 250 km north of Mumbai, to begin his party rebuilding exercise is seen as the octogenarian leader’s attempt to take the battle into the enemy camp.
Yeola is the stronghold of Bhujbal, a one-time close associate of Pawar. It was in Yeola that Bhujbal is said to have revived his electoral career after leaving the Shiv Sena in 1991.
After allying with the Sharad Pawar-led Congress in 1991, Bhujbal failed to win the 1995 Assembly elections that he contested in Mazgaon in Mumbai. In 1999, he did not contest the Assembly elections.
Alarmed at his inability to win elections, Pawar is said to have given Bhujbal an electoral lifeline. In the run-up to the 2004 elections, a group of citizens, reportedly at the behest of Pawar, decided to invite Bhujbal to contest elections from Yeola, hoping his presence will fuel development in their town.
“It was Sharad Pawar, who knowing that this was a safe seat, asked Bhujbal to contest from here,” NCP leader Manikrao Shinde confirmed. “It is unfortunate that Bhujbal is now speaking against a person who helped rehabilitate him politically. The people of Yeola have not liked him turning against his benefactor,” Shinde added.
Residents of Yeola, alarmed by the state government’s neglect of the town famous for its skilled saree weavers, had decided to invite any senior politician to contest the 2004 Assembly elections from their constituency. They believed that getting a senior politician to represent them would ensure the progress of their small town.
The group finally narrowed down its search to Bhujbal, who incidentally, was looking for a safe seat. He readily agreed and went on to represent the Yeola constituency for four consecutive terms. He also kept his side of the bargain by transforming Yeola into a VIP constituency, funding large-scale cosmetic changes. Between 2004 and 2014, Yeola had one of the best road networks in the state along with a state-of-the-art central administrative building.
Bhujbal, however, had to face dissent as his family gradually tightened its grip on the constituency and Nashik district. His son Pankaj got elected from the adjoining constituency of Nandgaon while his nephew Sameer was elected as MP of Nashik in 2009. This led to discontent against the Bhujbals, leading to the defeat of both his son and nephew in the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
With the election of a BJP government in 2014, Bhujbal’s clout in the area has gradually eroded. Bhujbal’s 26-month jail tenure in a money-laundering case against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also meant that he was away from his constituency for a prolonged time.
While there was speculation in 2019 that Bhujbal would jump ship and join the Shiv Sena, the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government meant Bhujbal stuck to the NCP.
There are 15 MLAs in Nashik district and of these, six were elected on NCP tickets. Five of the six NCP MLAs have now allied with Ajit Pawar.
Sharad Pawar has now given the task of reviving the party in Yeola to Shinde, who was at the forefront of the group that had invited Bhujbal to Yeola. He subsequently had a fallout with Bhujbal and unsuccessfully contested against him in 2009 on a Sena ticket. He was later cajoled by Pawar to rejoin the NCP and has now been given the task of taking on Bhujbal from the area.
Pawar’s choice of Yeola, a small town located 250 km north of Mumbai, to begin his party rebuilding exercise is seen as the octogenarian leader’s attempt to take the battle into the enemy camp. (Express photo) 
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