Onion, milk prices my top priority: ‘Giant killer’ Nilesh Lanke to focus on farm issues

Onion growers are upset over the price crash after the Narendra Modi-led government banned exports in December last year.

While the ban has now been lifted, a 40 per cent duty on exports is in place. However, poor rates has led to simmering discontent among farmers in Ahmednagar and according to Lanke, this issue has to be tackled immediately.

Lanke is also committed to supporting dairy farmers who have been struggling due to low milk prices. Lanke who won the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat by polling 6,24,797 votes is a grassroots worker who was earlier with the NCP (Ajit Pawar group) but later joined the Sharad Pawar faction.

From sarpanch of Hanga village to Parner MLA and now Member of Lok Sabha from Ahmednagar, Lanke, who is the son of a teacher, credits his success at the polls to the support from people, party workers, farmers, unemployed youth, Muslim community and those who share the thoughts and values of the Ambedkar movement.

He admits that the highest share of votes was from Parner,  his own assembly constituency where he polled as many as 1,30,440 votes, whereas his rival Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil polled 92,340 votes here.

This win has been a momentous one for Lanke as he has taken on the mighty Vikhe-Patil’s whose dominance in the cooperative sector and political sphere has been established for over six decades.

Sujay Vikhe-Patil was the sitting MP and had the backing of his father, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, a senior minister while his grandfather Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil was a veteran politician and seven-time MP apart from being a former Union Minister.

Sujay Vikhe-Patil polled 5,95,868 votes. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had left no stone unturned to ensure a victory for his son including organising well-attended rallies that had Mahayuti’s top brass campaigning including PM Modi.  However, it was not a cakewalk for Sujay Vikhe-Patil as he sought a second term.

An analysis of the votes polled in the six assembly constituencies of Ahmednagar reveals that Vikhe-Patil polled more than a lakh votes each from across Ahmednagar city, Shevgaon and Rahuri.

However, he polled 92,340 votes in Parner and 95,835 in Karjat Jamkhed Assembly constituency. Rohit Pawar, who hails from the influential Pawar family, is the MLA from Karjat–Jamkhed Assembly constituency.

The support from this constituency helped Lanke garner more than 1.04 lakh votes and get an edge over Vikhe-Patil. Lanke polled only 74,263 votes from Ahmednagar city while  Vikhe-Patil polled more than 1.05 lakh votes here.

Lanke, however, claims that a fair share of votes that were intended for the NCP (SP) symbol- depicting a man blowing a turha/tutari (a crescent shaped musical instrument) might have been mistakenly cast for the pipani symbol (trumpet) of an independent candidate.

Meanwhile, Gorakh Alekar, an Independent candidate, polled 44,597 votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.