Maharashtra Assembly polls: In Solapur City Central, 79-year-old Adam Master takes on ally Congress in Shinde bastion in his last election

CPI (M)’s Narsayya Adam will contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections from the Solapur City Central constituency. MVA ally Congress has fielded Chetan Narote from the seat.

Narsayya Adam, Maharashtra Assembly elections

79 year old CPI(M) candidate Narsayya Adam contesting his last election from Solapur city Central assembly constituency against ally Congress candidate Chetan Narote and opposition BJP candidate Devendra Kothe, AIMIM candidate Haji Farooq Maqbool Shabdi. (Express Photo By Pavan Khengre)

The upcoming Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be the last time Narsayya Adam contests an election. The 79-year-old CPI (M) candidate from the Solapur City Central constituency is upbeat about putting on a good show but miffed that the Congress decided to field its candidate from the seat.

“There is only one active politician from the 1978 era, Sharad Pawar, but he stopped contesting elections a few years ago. I am still active due to my physical fitness,” says Adam, popularly known as ‘Adam Master’.

A three-time legislator who first got elected to the state Assembly in 1978, followed by stints in 1995 and 2004, Adam is contesting from a Congress stronghold that was represented by Praniti Shinde in the last three terms.

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Adam points out that the CPI(M) campaigned for Shinde during the Lok Sabha elections and it was expected that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally Congress would, in turn, support the CPI(M) in the Assembly elections but it did not. The party has fielded Chetan Narote from the seat but Adam is not worried. “Despite being a legislator for three terms from Solapur Central, Shinde only managed to get a lead of 600 votes from the Assembly area during the recently held Lok Sabha elections even after getting the support of the NCP(SP), the Shiv Sena(UBT), the CPI(M) and other alliance partners,” he says.

A Congress leader says it was difficult for the party to give up the seat as the two other seats in Solapur city, Solapur City North and Solapur City South, were allocated to the NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), respectively. “How can we give up an Assembly seat that is our bastion? A seat we won three consecutive times in the previous Assembly elections?” the leader asked.

Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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