For Parvati slumdwellers polls are festive times

For slumdwellers in this constituency, party is less important. For them candidate and his caste is more important. They have been voting for apala manus for years. But there are forward castes and wealthy class living in Sahkarnagar, Mukundnagar, Padmavati, Adinath society, Meera Society, Salisbury Park and Bibwewadi. Lower middle and middle class live the areas like Laxminagar and a number of chawls are spread all over the constituency.

This reserved constituency is set to witness triangular battle between a Matang and two Neo-Buddhists. Congress has fielded Ramesh Bagwe belonging to dominant Matang community. BJP has once again nominated Vishwas Gangurde, who is a Neo-Buddhist while Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party has handed over this seat to Republican Party of India (RPI) faction led by Ramdas Athawale. RPI has asked M D Shewale to test the fortunes.

Bagwe and Gangurde are not new to the electoral politics. Bagwe has fought twice in the past as Independents. This is first time that he is contesting as a party nominee. Gangurde is testing his luck for the fourth time here. For Shewale, this is the first electoral fight. Bagwe and Shewale have men and money power at their disposal, which can be witnessed during their campaign. Gangurde is handicapped so far as money power is concerned but has a strong team of dedicated workers.

All the candidates have worked out their own strategies to win the battle. Bagwe is mainly banking on his caste. Being the only Matang candidate in the fray, he hopes to carry with him 50,000-odd Matang voters. Bagwe also has Muslim community to bank on. He hopes that Muslims will vote for panja this time. Bagwe’s wife is Muslim and she has busied herself with electioneering in Muslim localities.

BJP is mainly trying to cash in on the vertical split in Congress. The previous results show that split in Congress had worked in favour of BJP in this constituency. BJP supporters claim that their party’s performance has been steadily increasing in every election. Gangurde has party’s vote bank of about 70,000 and is trying to encash Vajpayee’s popularity and achievements of the Alliance Government. His supporters claim that there was sympathy for him in the entire constituency because he had failed thrice. The BJP workers feel that they would retain the seat if Gangurde could fetch a few thousand votes from his own caste – Neo-Buddhists, who are said to number 50,000 in the constituency.

Shewale’s strength is untested. He will, of course, mainly depend upon party’s vote bank of Neo-Buddhists and the Pawar factor. Shewale hopes to 50,000-odd Maratha votes and those from the trading community.

The election outcome in this segment largely relies on effective caste combinations worked out by three major candidates. The political workers, however, fear that the election would cause a permanent social tension among Matangs and Neo-Buddhists in this area. They point out that both the communities do not see eye to eye because of their traditional relations. Matang community has been described pro-Hindu and had always opposed the Mahar community’s decision to go in for conversion. Both communities feel let down by the Congress, which denied ticket to either Sharad Ranpise, a Neo-Budhhist or Dilip Kambale, a Matang.