Uddhav makes emotional pitch to reclaim Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: ‘Will retire if you decide not to stand by me’

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP swept all nine Assembly seats in Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar, then known as Aurangabad. The BJP won Phulambri (Haribhau Bagde), Gangapur (Prashant Bamb) and Aurangabad East (Atul Save).

The undivided Sena won Kannad (Udaysingh Rajput), Sillod (Abdul Sattar), Aurangabad Central (Pradeep Jaiswal), Aurangabad West (Sanjay Shirsat), Paithan (Sandipan Bhumare) and Vaijapur (Ramesh Bornale). Except for Rajput from Kannad Assembly seat, all five MLAs chose to join hands with Shinde after his rebellion against Thackeray.

Except for the 1998 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the undivided Sena has been winning the general elections here since 1989. In 1998, Ramkrishna Patil of the Congress had won the election. After the split, Sena UBT fielded former MP Chandrakant Khaire while Shinde-led Sena fielded Sandipan Bhumare. Both battled against the incumbent Imtiyaz Jaleel of AIMIM.

Riding high on the wave created following the agitation led by Maratha social activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, Bhumare won the LS election, becoming the first Maratha MP of this constituency since 1998.

In Assembly polls too the party faced an embarrassment. Its candidate Kishanchand Tanwani from Aurangabad Central backed out at the last moment forcing the party to field its city chief Balasaheb Thorat.

Except for Kannad seat, the Sena UBT has given tickets to new faces to take on the existing MLAs from Shinde Sena. Three-term MLA Sanjay Shirsat is facing SS-UBT’s Raju Shinde who fought as an independent in 2019 polls. Former BJP leader Dinesh Pardeshi has joined the SS-UBT to take on Ramesh Bornale in Vaijapur while Suresh Bankar is Thackeray’s candidate against minister Abdul Sattar in Sillod. Undivided NCP candidate Datta Gorde in 2019 polls is a candidate against Vilas Bhumare, son of LS MP Sandipan Bhumare, in Paithan.

“It (the LS defeat) hurt me. I cannot digest the fact that people of this city voted to someone who backstabbed the party. The party which gave him his political identity and a career,” said Thackeray.

Background

Then CM Sharad Pawar’s proposal in the late 1970s to rename the Marathwada University as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar University saw protests and riots. The Shiv Sena, then led by its founder late Bal Thackeray, managed to create a base in Marathwada and brought Maratha leaders into its fold.

In the 1990s, when the Ram Temple demand gained momentum, the BJP made inroads into the region. The Shiv Sena, which took a Hindutva turn, strengthened its base. In the late 2000s, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Musilimeen (AIMIM) — a Hyderabad-based party —- also started making inroads in Marathwada. The region, which is said to have an estimated 15% Muslim population, was part of the erstwhile Nizam state of Hyderabad. With a focus on the Muslim-dominated areas, the AIMIM strengthened its base.

In this background, known as the capital of Marathwada region, in the late 1980s, Aurangabad became one of the first major cities outside the Mumbai-Thane belt that the Shiv Sena set its eyes on. The city’s 30% Muslim population made it fertile ground for polarisation. Following communal riots that led to the killing of over 25 people, in 1988, the Sena won elections to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation.

On May 8, 1988, Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray announced the renaming of the city to Sambhajinagar after Sambhaji Maharaj. In 1995, the Aurangabad Corporation passed a resolution to do so, and the then Sena-led government in the state issued a notification seeking suggestions and objections from people on this.

“Khan ki baan (Khan or arrow — in reference to undivided Sena’s poll symbol of Bow and Arrow) was the slogan used extensively by the Sena in all elections,” said Jaidev Dole, a senior political commentator from Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar.

While Thackeray is trying to connect emotionally with his former stronghold, CM Shinde is leaving no stone unturned to allege the ideological shift of Thackerays. “In the era of Balasaheb (Thackeray), the leaders of Delhi used to come to meet him at Matoshri (Thackeray residence). Now, you (Uddhav) have to roam gullies of Delhi. All this is because you have given up on Balasaheb’s ideology,” said Shinde on Thursday.

Sena-BJP combine has been controlling the Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar municipal corporation since 1995. Despite the total dominance in political sphere, the water woos of the city continue. From Marathwada water grid to river linking projects, several plans have been made to solve the problem, but the issue remains unsolved.

Both Thackeray and Shinde claim the credit of renaming Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar. “In the last cabinet meeting before our government was pulled down by these gaddars (traitors), we cleared the proposal of renaming,” Thackeray claimed. Shinde counters saying it was his government which completed the procedure and ensured that the process is completed with the help of central government led by PM.

The successive governments make it a point to hold a special state cabinet in the city and declare packages worth thousands of crore. “Impressive packages and scheme are announced in these meetings, but how much of it really materialise remains to be studied,” Dole said.