With 24 Lok Sabha constituencies in north Maharashtra and Vidarbha going to polls on Tuesday, the Congress-NCP combine is likely to have an edge over the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, partly due to the drought which has negated the feel-good factor.Initially, it was thought that considering the alliance between Congress and NCP, there would be a straight contest. However, the emergence of the third front led by Prakash Ambedkar and the entry of Bahujan Samaj Party has ensured triangular contests in most constituencies.During campaigning, the saffron combine had an edge as several senior leaders including PM A.B. Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Bal Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Pramod Mahajan and Narayan Rane addressed rallies while Congress-NCP was represented by Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar at a few meetings.Uddhav Thackeray said owing to the anti-incumbency factor against the Shinde government, the saffron combine will improve its performance. Suicides by farmers, failure to tackle drought and acute power shortage in rural parts are being cited as factors that go against the ruling front. ‘‘The feel-good factor will help us secure more seats compared to the last elections,’’ Uddhav said.On the other hand, NCP leader Praful Patel was optimistic that in view of the Congress-NCP alliance, votes would not be divided and the combine would repeat its 1998 performance. Then the united Congress had won all 11 seats of the Vidarbha region. ‘‘Wait and see, you will witness a miracle,’’ Patel said.Prominent among the candidates in the fray are CM Sushilkumar Shinde’s wife Ujjwala who is contesting from Solapur, former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil (Latur), RPI leader Prakash Ambedkar (Akola), NCP’s Praful Patel (Bhandara), Union Minister for Heavy Industries Subodh Mohite (Ramtek), RPI’s Ramdas Athavale (Pandharpur) and Education Minister Laxmanrao Dhoble (Osmanabad).One of the keenly-contested fights will be the one at Solapur. In the 1999 polls, Sushilkumar Shinde had retained the seat. In the subsequent bypoll, Congress nominee Anandrao Deokate was mauled by BJP’s Pratapsinh Mohite Patil, younger brother of Dy CM and NCP leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patil. Now Pratapsinh has withdrawn from the fray and BJP has fielded Subhash Deshmukh, considered weak candidate Ujjwala.Shivraj Patil is in a tight situation in Latur as the BJP has nominated Ruplekha Nilangekar, daughter-in-law of senior Congress leader Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar. In Ramtek, Subodh Mohite has an edge over Congress’ Shrikant Jichkar who dithered over contesting till the last minute.
