A namesake deprived her rival of over 1 lakh votes but this union minister still lost by a huge margin

Babu Sadu Bhagre (68) is an independent candidate who was allotted 'Tutari' as his election symbol which has strong resemblance to the NCP (SP) symbol of man blowing turha

3 min readPuneJun 5, 2024 10:58 AM IST First published on: Jun 4, 2024 at 05:46 PM IST

It is a well-known dirty trick in politics to prop up candidates bearing a resemblance to the name or election symbol of political opponents hoping that they will eat away part of the votes of the opponent.

The trick does work to some extent but rarely makes a big impact these days with increased levels of education among voters. However, in the Dindori constituency covering parts of Nashik and Dhule districts, a mostly unknown Independent candidate with name as well as symbol resemblance caused a major dent in the votes of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar).

Bhaskar Bhagre, the NCP (SP) candidate, who is contesting against sitting MP and Union minister Bharti Pawar, got a scare as namesake Babu Sadu Bhagre, 68, who is contesting as Independent, started pocketing considerable votes from round one. Apart from the resemblance in name, Babu Bhagre was also allotted ‘Tutari’ (trumpet) as his election symbol, which has a great resemblance to the NCP (SP) symbol of ‘Tutari Vajavnara Manus’ (man playing a trumpet).

After four rounds, when Bhaskar Bhagre was leading by 6,989 votes against the BJP candidate, his namesake had garnered 12,389 votes. With every passing round, Babu Bhagre accumulated more votes, pocketing over 103,632 votes by the end of counting.

“Babu Bhagre is not a known name. He has also used ‘sir’ in his name, although he was never a teacher. Whereas, NCP (SP) candidate Bhaskar Bhagre is a teacher by profession. There was some protest by the NCP (SP) when Babu Bhagre was allotted the ‘Tutari’ symbol. But the election officer persisted,” said a Nashik resident.

Babu Bhagre hails from Gangawadi village in Nashik district and has studied up to Class 3. He has declared assets worth Rs 6.25 lakh including cash, movable, and immovable properties.

While the number of votes going to his namesake might surely have given him a scare, NCP (SP)’s Bhaskar Bhagre has managed to defeat Pawar. Bhaskar Bhagre got 5,77,339 votes and defeated the former union minister by 1,13,119 votes.

Independent with ‘Tutari’ has limited impact in Baramati

Shaikh Soyalshaha, who identified himself as the son of a sugarcane-cutting labourer from Beed and contested as an Independent candidate from Baramati, has had limited impact although he performed better than other Independent candidates.

Soyalshaha – who was allotted ‘Tutari’ as the election symbol notwithstanding the protests of the NCP (SP) – has secured 5,196 votes, topping the list of 28 Independents in the constituency.