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Journalism of Courage
It’s a well-known trick in politics to prop up candidates whose name or election symbol resembles that of political opponents, in the hope that they will eat away part of the votes of the opponent.
The trick does work to an extent but rarely makes a big impact these days with increased levels of education among voters. However, in Dindori constituency, made of parts of Nashik and Dhule districts, a mostly unknown independent candidate, due to a resemblance of name and symbol, has caused a big dent in the votes of Nationalist Congress Party (SP).
Bhaskar Bhagre, NCP (SP) candidate, who is contesting against sitting MP and Union minister Dr Bharti Pawar, was given a scare as a namesake Babu Sadu Bhagre, 68, who is contesting as an independent, began pocketing considerable votes from round one. Apart from resemblance in name, Babu Bhagre was also allotted the ‘tutari’ as his election symbol which strongly resembles the NCP (SP) symbol of ‘tutari vajavnara manus’.
After four rounds, when NCP’s Bhagre was ahead of BJP’s Pawar by 6,989 votes, his namesake Babu Bhagre had garnered only 12,389 votes. However, with every passing round, Babu Bhagre accumulated more votes pocketing over 91,000 votes by the end of 23rd round.
“He is not a known name. There was some protest by NCP (SP) candidate Bhaskar Bhagre when he was allotted ‘tutari’ symbol, but the election officer insisted,” said a Nashik resident. Babu Bhagre who hails from village Gangawadi in Nashik district and educated only till Class 3, has declared assets worth Rs 6,25 lakh, including cash, movable and immovable properties.
While the number of votes going to his namesake surely gave him a scare, NCP’s Bhagre still notched a substantial lead over Dr Pawar.
In the final tally, Bhaskar Bhagre won 5,77, 339 votes, BJP’s Dr Bharati Pawar bagged 4,64,140 votes and Babu Bhagre got 1,03,632 votes.
In Baramati
Shaikh Soyalshaha, who identified himself as the son of a sugarcane-cutting labourer from Beed, and was contesting as an independent from Baramati, has had limited impact, even though he performed better than other independent candidates.
Shaikh who was allotted ‘tutari’ as election symbol– notwithstanding protests of the NCP (SP) – has bagged 5,196 votes, topping the list of 28 independents in the constituency, most of whom got less than 500 votes.
