Bhandara-Gondia constituency: Nana Patole gone, contest is wide open

The constituency handed a stunning blow to the powerful ruling combine of BJP-Shiv Sena in last year’s byelection necessitated after then BJP MP Nana Patole quit the party, protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “authoritarian” conduct.

And while that result appeared to indicate a change of mood, the contest is again wide open, for four reasons: there is no Patole this time to rally around; the state government has announced Rs 500 per quintal bonus for paddy farmers; this election is to decide who will form the government in Delhi; and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded a candidate, unlike in 2018.

The conversation at a tea kiosk illustrates how keenly the battle is being fought this time: “Our slogan is ‘Jaha Nana, vaha jana’ (We will follow Nana wherever he goes),” says Ashok Mendhe from the group resting near the tea shop. “But where is Nana this time,” asks Baburao Hukare, former sarpanch and a BJP supporter. Vishal, a Mendhe and NCP supporter, counters, “We will still try to make it 60:40 in Congress-NCP’s favour.”

Wadegaon’s NCP tilt is also due to its overwhelming population of Kunbis, a farming community to which Patole belongs. “We have many Mendhes in Wadegaon,” says Vishal, adding, “But we will not vote for Sunil Mendhe.”

Sunil Mendhe is the BJP nominee pitted against Congress-NCP’s Nana Panchbuddhe. While Panchbuddhe, a former minister, is a veteran of many elections, Mendhe, currently chairman of the Bhandara Municipal Council, is making his electoral debut.

Bhandara-Gondia is a BJP stronghold. The BJP holds five Assembly constituencies — Morgaon-Arjuni, Tumsar, Sakoli, Tiroda and Bhandara. The Congress holds Gondia. NCP bigwig and former Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who stayed out of the fray as he has more than three years left in the Rajya Sabha, won three elections here and remains well-known, despite his 2014 defeat to Patole.

BJP workers are enthused by the massive Modi rally on April 3. In any village, there are people expressing their fondness for Modi. That fondness was there in the 2018 byelection too, yet did not result in BJP’s victory.

Sunil Mendhe’s election meeting at the 4,000-strong Parsodi village in Sakoli tehsil attracts only 25 people. Mendhe speaks about his inexperience but invokes the names of Modi and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, appealing to villagers to vote for the BJP and promising to fulfill their expectations

Those in the crowd are all praise for Modi. Namdeo Bhonde is a farm labourer. He is happy that he has got a ‘gharkul’ (house) and LPG connection. Hasan Wagh, a farmer with five acres, says the state government has given Rs 500 per quintal bonus to farmers this time. Both Bhonde and Wagh say they will vote for Modi.

Vasudev Kapgate points out: Most farmers sell their paddy to traders as they can’t wait for government procurement. The traders then take farmers’ 7/12 extract to encash the bonus. As we are obliged to them — they give us farm inputs on credit before the sowing season, we don’t seek the bonus from them. Who will bail us out if we sour our relationship with the traders.”

He suggests, “Ideally, the government should have hiked the price from Rs 1,750 per quintal by Rs 300 and paid Rs 200 as bonus. It could have reduced our loss.”

Asked if traders don’t pay them the bonus, the villagers say, “Chaha panyala detat kahitari (Enough only for tea and snacks).”

At Sendurwafa, the next village, Nuparaj Raut, a Dalit teacher, favours the NCP. “No one can ensure Bhandara-Gondia’s development except Praful Patel. And for that we should vote for the NCP.” Ranjit Shimpi, also a Dalit, says he voted for the NCP last time and will do so this time too.

At Murdoli village in Morgaon-Arjuni tehsil, Yavchan Uike and wife Lilabai are busy de-weeding the paddy crop. “Ours is a tribal village that always votes for the NCP,” they say. Asked what they feel about Modi, they say, “Modi is good but we won’t vote for him.” Asked who has the edge this time, Yavchan says, “Both parties have a 50-50 chance.”

Caste will also play a role. The constituency has over 18 lakh voters. The most dominant are Kunbis, at over 4 lakh, followed by Telis (3.25 lakh), Powars (2.25 lakh), SCs (3.5 lakh), Muslims (about 50,000) and Dhivars (fishermen, about 1 lakh). While the 2014 Patole victory against Patel was due to the Modi wave, the 2018 victory of Madhukar Kukde of the NCP, also a Kunbi, had largely to do with the Kunbi factor propelled by Patole.

“This time, however, it’s a fight between two Kunbis and hence the vote may get split,” says an old Congress hand in the area. He adds that aggrieved by Congress dumping Teli Vinayak Bangde for the Chadrapur seat, Telis might throw their weight behind the BJP, while Dalits and Muslims would close ranks behind Panchabuddhe.

A BJP Power leader, Rajendra Patle, has filed his nomination as an Independent, and there is concern in the party that he could cut into its Powar support base.

BSP too may impact the outcome. According to former Congress councillor Mahendra Nimbarte, the BSP candidate, Vijaya Nandurkar, is from the Mali community, and not a Dalit, so its cadre may vote for the Congress-NCP candidate.

In the 2018 byelection, Prakash Ambedkar’s Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh candidate had won over 40,000 votes. It remains to be seen how the party’s candidate K H Nanne, belonging to the Dhivar community, will fare in this election. Ambedkar follower Vijay Bhaskar, a pathologist from Sakoli, said, “We are telling the community that Babasaheb (Ambedkar) was defeated by the Congress in Bhandara in the 1950s. It’s time we corrected the historical wrong by standing firmly behind his grandson.”

BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Modi, have unfailingly mentioned this in their campaign. “But Dalits are also witnessing a silent Samvidhan Bachao (Save the Constitution) campaign targeting the BJP, which could help consolidate their votes in a particular direction, which is not obviously that of the BJP,” says Nimbarte.