Maharashtra polls, Bhokar seat: In once stronghold, Congress a muted presence

“Please let us give you a written list of our requests,” says one speaker at an election sabha in Khambala village in Mudkhed taluka. At Dhanaj village, one of the speakers is more candid, simply reading out all the demands they have of their prospective legislator. “In the Lok Sabha election, Dhanaj expressed its anger (against you), but let us put that behind us,” says another speaker.

Earlier this year, Chavan lost the Nanded Lok Sabha seat to Sena MLA-turned BJP Lok Sabha aspirant, Pratap Patil Chikhalikar.

Congress Election Poster in Nanded City. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty)

With nine days of campaigning to go, the sabhas are still low key as the Congress in Nanded attempts to stay strictly within ECI’s expenditure guidelines. Chavan’s team has sent advance requests to villages not to offer him the traditional welcome with multiple garlands and shawls — every shawl, every tarpaulin carpet for the wet ground, every microphone and every garland will be calculated as part of the candidate’s poll expense.

At Dhanaj, the sabha is held on a concrete porch with no pandal, banner or party flags in sight. As the emcee for the event begins, one of Chavan’s assistants brings out a microphone and portable speaker from their car. Three frail boys wave a Congress flag, two others sport paper visors with the party’s symbol — the budget is tight for village- and booth-level workers to make the Congress visible again in an old stronghold.

Chavan is fresh from his Lok Sabha defeat, one he maintains was effected by the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate who polled over 1.6 lakh votes — he lost by 42,000. He is confident of retaining Bhokar, his constituency as CM too, but is carefully planning and strategising every detail.

For, the last few months have seen a flurry of departures of Congressmen at all levels — some former MIM leaders who had joined the Congress ahead of its impressive win in the Nanded Waghala Municipal Corporation polls in 2017 have returned, and there is still unease among the Dalits and Muslims, once committed Congress voters. The party’s sweep of Nanded Waghala in 2017 was seen as a bend in the road — Congress won 73 of the 81 seats.

The crisis in the Congress has only deepened since the Lok Sabha results. Chavan resigned as MPCC chief, and new chief Balasaheb Thorat has had barely a couple of months to set the house in order ahead of elections. Meanwhile, top leaders such as Sushilkumar Shinde have floated the idea of a Congress-NCP merger, confusing the cadre even though the official leadership of both parties have rubbished the proposal.

With Thorat, Chavan, former CM Prithviraj Chavan and other top leaders all contesting the polls, and thus concentrating on winning their seats, the party’s campaign lacks cohesion. In addition, the party will go to polls under the cloud of rebellions by those who didn’t get tickets, senior leaders leaving the party and former Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam sulking over a ticket being denied to his nominee.

The BJP, on the other hand, has gained fresh ground since the poor showing in the 2017 Nanded Waghala municipal polls. Villagers in Bhokar are quick to admit that CM Fadnavis himself appeared to have made defeating Chavan a prestige issue.

Barely five months later, the Congress warhorse is campaigning almost alone; his cavalcade as he leaves Nanded comprising only a pilot vehicle and his Innova, two media vehicles bringing up the rear. At the party office in Bhokar, about 20 men are gathered but do not know what the day’s plan is. A call to their boss yields information that Bhokar will see no Congress campaign today.