Voters to seal fate of 298 candidates in 11 Maharashtra constituencies tomorrow

This phase holds particular significance for the ruling BJP, as it had won seven out of the 11 seats in 2019 that included North Maharashtra, known as the party’s stronghold. However, the BJP is facing tough competition in two of the three Lok Sabha seats in North Maharashtra. The party is also engaged in a tough battle in Beed and Jalna over the possibility of a consolidation of the Maratha community against it. The party faces the challenge of retaining Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Pune, Ahmednagar, Beed and Jalna.

In the ruling alliance, the BJP will contest a maximum of seven seats, while Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena will contest three seats, and Ajit Pawar-led NCP will contest one seat in Shirur.

On the opposition front, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will compete on four seats, while Sharad Pawar-led NCP and the Congress will contest four and three seats, respectively.

Pune

The electoral contest in Pune is set to be a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress. Both the national political parties have made the contest a prestige issue with BJP trying to retain the seat it won in previous two elections while the Congress has gone all out to regain its bastion.

After the death of MP Girish Bapat, the BJP fielded former mayor Murlidhar Mohol this election while Congress has pitted MLA Ravindra Dhangekar, who had defeated the BJP in Kasba assembly bypoll last year.

The BJP had roped in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, state leaders Devendra Fadanavis for the election campaign, along with leaders from alliance partners including MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Ramdas Athawale, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The election campaign of the Congress saw senior leaders Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Abhishek Manu Shingvi and veterans from Maharashtra such as Prithviraj Chavan, Balasaheb Thorat pitching for Dhangekar. Alliance partners Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, Aaditya Thackeray, and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also threw their weight behind the MVA candidate from the Pune Lok Sabha seat.

Vasant More is another prominent candidate who is there in the election fray and is contesting the elections on a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate. More and Dhangekar started their political career with Shiv Sena and then Maharashtra Navnirman Sena but left the Raj Thackeray-led party later on.

There are total 20,61,276 registered voters in Pune constituency, which recorded a voter turnout of 49.84 % in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Election officials have deployed 11,176 staff to man the 2,018 polling booths in this contituency.

Maval

With 90 per cent of the voter slips been distributed by Saturday and the remaining set disbursed on Sunday, poll officials are expecting that the voter turnout will be higher this time than the last three elections in Maval. The Maval Lok Sabha constituency has over 25,85,000 voters and has three constituencies in Pune district (Maval, Chinchwad and Pimpri) and three in Raigad district—Panvel, Karjat and Uran.

Of the six assembly constituencies, Panvel has the highest number of voters at 3,17,096.

In all, there are 2,566 polling centres in Maval constituency. ”We are all set for the elections. There will be around 18,000 poll staff on duty on Monday,” returning officer Deepak Sangla told The Indian Express on Sunday.

The Maval Lok Sabha constituency came into being in 2009 after the delimitation exercise.

In 2009, the Maval seat registered a polling percentage of 44.71, in 2014, it polled 60.11 per cent and in 2019, 59.57 per cent voters exercised their franchise.

The Maval constituency has been a Shiv Sena bastion. In 2009, Gajanan Babar of the Shiv Sena had won the seat, in 2014 and 2019, Shrirang Barne had won the seat. Barne is trying his luck for the third time. He is facing Sanjog Waghere of the Shiv Sena (UBT). Waghere is a former mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Unlike the Baramati and Shirur seat, there has not been much acrimony over the Maval seat. While Barne kept saying that he had no clue who his rival is, Waghere said he (Barne) will come to know on June 4.

Shirur

Maval and Shirur constituencies are on the opposide side of Pune-Mumbai Expressway in Pimpri-Chinchwad. While Maval runs up to Raigad district, Shirur constituency goes up till Hadapsar. It includes some parts of Pune city, including Kondhwa.

Shirur constituency has 2,53,900 voters and 2,509 polling centres. The main fight here is between sitting MP and actor Amol Kolhe of the NCP (SP) and former MP Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil, who switched over from the Shiv Sena to Ajit Pawar’s NCP to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Like the Baramati constituency, the Shirur seat also witnessed a bitter duel as Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar vowed to defeat Kolhe, who refused to join his party. Despite all the pressure mounted on him, Kolhe did not switch his loyalties and stay put with the Sharad Pawar camp.

In the 2019 polls, Kolhe contested his first elections from the united NCP and defeated Adhalrao, who had earlier won the seat for three consecutive times on the united Shiv Sena’s ticket.

Ahmednagar

In Ahmednagar, one of the key Lok Sabha constituencies in North Maharashtra, last ditch attempts were made to woo the voters – be it Deputy CM Ajit Pawar campaigning on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya for Mahayuti candidate Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil who is vying for a second term or rival candidate Nilesh Lanke (who quit Ajit Pawar’s NCP to join Sharad Pawar group) taking to social media with stream of reels on crisis faced by onion growers and why better days will be ahead if he voted to power.

The run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in this constituency has seen a series of personal attacks and the continuation of age-old political rivalry between veteran NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

The state minister has left no stone unturned to ensure a victory for his son Sujay, including organising a rally that saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi and star campaigners from BJP campaigning for Ahmednagar’s sitting MP.

However, it may not be a cakewalk for Sujay Vikhe-Patil as he seeks a second term especially as issues like falling prices of onions and unsold stocks have gained prominence. Milk prices and the impact of the agitation for Maratha reservation is also at play here, apart from concerns of water shortage.

Meanwhile, according to Lanke’s supporters, the candidate’s connect with the people and poll pitch of Vikhe-Patil’s alleged inaccessibility, apart from holding door-to-door meetings and visits across villages during a month-long yatra, has helped Lanke gain prominence. Sharad Pawar too campaigned for Lanke . However, according to Sujay’s supporters, Lanke faces several complaints about bullying industrialists in the Supe industrial area.

There are around 20 lakh registered voters in Ahmednagar. A Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) committee has been set up to ensure high voter turnout this election. There are six assembly segments in Ahmednagar, which is the largest district in Maharashtra. Both BJP and NCP (SP) have sizeable following, and hence it will be a neck-to-neck fight, according to experts.

Out of the six assembly constituecnies, two are with Sharad Pawar-led NCP, two with the BJP, one with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the sixth assembly segment was represented by Lanke, who resigned as MLA to join the NCP (SP).

Shirdi

Shirdi, one of the two constituencies within Ahmednagar district, is a bastion of the Shiv Sena that is reserved for Scheduled Caste. The constituency will see a tough contest between incumbent Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena MP Sadashiv Kisan Lokhande, and Bhausaheb Rajaram Wakchaure of the Shiv Sena UBT.

Sadashiv Lokhande is a two-term sititng MP from Shirdi Lok Sabha constituency. Lokhande was earlier with the BJP. He had won thrice from Karjat-Jamkhed assembly constituency on a BJP ticket. Later, he also contested from MNS in Mumbai but failed to win.

In 2014, he contested on a Sena ticket and won. Subsequently, he was renominated by the Sena from Shirdi and won the 2019 elections. After the split in the Shiv Sena, he joined hands with Eknath-Shinde led Shiv Sena.

Shirdi has total 16,77,000 voters and 1,708 polling booths. During the 2019 General Assembly elections, Shirdi recorded a 64.54 per cent voter turnout.

In 2019,Wakchaure contested from Shirdi as an independent candidate and in August last year, after the Shiv Sena split, he joined the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. The electoral contest here has become more intriguing with the entry of former Congress leader Utkarsha Rupwate, who is fighting the polls a VBA ticket.

Beed

Synonymous with water scarcity, sugarcane harvesters and intense politicking, a total of 25.85 lakh voters would exercise their franchise in Beed on Monday. This time, senior BJP leader and former minister Pankaja Munde, daughter of late Gopinath Munde, is set to defend the Munde family’s bastion by taking on Bajrang Sonawane, who has been pitted by NCP (Sharad Pawar).

The politics of Beed has always been captured by the Munde family, who have represented the seat multiple times.

Before Pankaja, it was her sister Preetam who had inherited her father’s seat following his death in 2014. NCP leader and state minister Dhananjay is also from Beed.

Before the NCP joined hands with the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra, Dhananjay was the biggest political competitor of the Munde sisters. He had defeated Pankaja from her seat of Parali. Now, with the cousins together, the BJP hopes for an easy win in Beed.

Beed was one of the focal points of the Maratha agitation as the house of NCP leader Jaidatt Kshirsagar was ransacked by agitators. A telephone recording alleged to be of Pankaja’s has gone around which talks of sharp polarization in the district. The division between OBCs (Pankaja and other other Munde’s belong to the influential Vanzari community which comes under OBCs) and Marathas is sharp in Beed this time.

Sonawane had contested the election in 2019 against Preetam but had lost. This time around, he hopes to avenge his defeat and raised the issues of unemployment, water scarcity and lack of development in the area. For Pankaja, it is the strength of the organization and the brand ‘Modi’ she is banking on to emerge victorious in the Lok Sabha elections.

Nandurbar

The traditional stronghold of the Congress was won by BJP’s Dr Heena Gavit both in 2014 and 2019. In 2024, former minister and MLA KC Padvi’s son, advocate Gowaal Padvi from Congress, will challenge the incumbent Dr. Gavit — daughter of the state’s tribal development minister Vijaykumar Gavit from this constituency, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

Jalgaon

A traditional stronghold of the BJP, Jalgaon witnessed political upheaval after the BJP denied a ticket to incumbent Unmesh Patil. Former MLA Smita Wagh, an old-timer from the party, was given the ticket. Patil joined the Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray but extended support to Sena candidate Karan Pawar. This marks the first time these parties are contesting against each other from Jalgaon.

Raver

In a surprising turn of events, the BJP retained its incumbent MP Raksha Khadse, daughter-in-law of BJP-turned-NCP leader Eknath Khadse who is said to be on his way back to the BJP. The NCP-SP has fielded industrialist Shriram Patil. This seat, known for its overwhelming population of the Leva-Patil community, has been a traditional stronghold of the BJP.

Jalna

Jalna, the epicenter of Maratha agitation in 2023, has been with the BJP since 1996. Five-term Lok Sabha MP Raosaheb Danve is seeking his sixth term and has been pitted against Kalyan Kale from Congress.

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

The headquarters of the Marathwada region saw a surprise in 2019 when it elected Imtiyaz Jaleel of the AIMIM. Jaleel is contesting again, challenged by Chandrakant Khaire of Shiv Sena (UBT) and MLA Sandupan Bhumre of the Shiv Sena.

(With inputs from Ajay Khape, Manoj More, Anuradha Mascarenhas, Partha Sarathi Biswas & ENS Mumbai)