Mumbai: Nineteen Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra are voting on April 17. 6 seats in Marathwada, 10 Western in Maharashtra, 1 in Konkan and 2 in Northern Maharashtra will be voting on Thursday. The entire Vidarbha region has already voted on April 10. Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats.
The fate of many bigwigs in the state politics will be determined in this phase.
Former chief minister Ashok Chavan of 'Adarsh fame' is contesting from Nanded. After he was forced to resign as the chief minister in late 2010, Ashok Chavan was almost sidelined in the state politics. After 3 years of political 'vanavaas' he is trying to get his space back in the mainstream politics. Nanded has always been a stronghold of the Congress. Chavan's father Shankarrao Chavan was a Congress stalwart, who held key portfolios like Home, Finance, Defence etc in the Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimharao governments. He had nurtured this constituency for years.
His son Ashok Chavan has inherited S B Chavan's legacy. Unlike son, father was known for his 'clean' image in politics. After the Adarsh scam, Nanded has become a prestigious battle for Ashok Chavan. Though Nanded has been a strong base of the Congress, the crowd came for Narendra Modi's rally a few days back has surprised many political observers.
Modi promised the voters to put all 'tainted' leaders behind the bars, if he comes to power. Modi's statement may not make a big impact on the voters, but this will help the Shiv Sena - BJP in rest of the Marathwada region, which is also voting on the same day.
Beed will be one more keenly watched seat in Marathwada. The BJP leader and sitting MP Gopinath Munde seeking one more term from here. During the campaign, Munde attacked Sharad Pawar's NCP. Munde made serious allegations of corruption against Uncle - Nephew duo Sharad and Ajit Pawar in his public meetings.
The enraged NCP is trying to halt Munde's victory march this time. The NCP minister of state and MLA from assembly constiteucny Ashti in the same district of Beed, Suresh Dhas is its candidate. Munde is considered the tallest leader in Beed district. But, on the ground, situation looks different. The NCP has 6 MLAs out of total 7 in the Beed district. In the last 5 years, the NCP has tried to strengthen its base. Even the NCP took Dhanajay Munde, Gopinath's estranged nephew into the party. This time it will be a do or die battle for Munde.
With Marathwada, Western Maharashtra will also vote on the same day. In Solapur, Union Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde is contesting his last election. In Baramati Sharad Pawar's home turf, his daughter Supriya Sule is seeking a second term. Her victory is a foregone conclusion. But her margin can be less this time.
Last time she won the election on her father's name with more than one and half lakh margin. If that comes down this time, then it will be seen as Supriya's failure to win the trust of her voter.
Besides these two seats of Solapur and Baramati, the real battle of the Western Maharashtra is taking place in Pune. The Congress has fielded Dr. Vishwajit Kadam, president of Maharashtra Youth Congress and the son of Cabinet minister in Maharashtra Patangrao Kadam after denying the ticket to sitting MP Suresh Kalmadi, the main accused the in Common Wealth Games scam.
The sulking Kalmadi has 'publicly' declared his support to Vishwajeet, but will it translate into votes?
The BJP and Raj Thackarey's MNS are giving a tough fight to the Congress in Pune. The BJP has fielded Anil Shirole and the MNS has fielded Deepak Paigude.
Traditionally, the sugar belt of Western Maharshtra has been a stronghold of the NCP. But in the last Lok Sabha election, the NCP could win only 3 of 7 seats it contested in this region.
In Kolhapur district, farmer leader Raju Shetty is challenging the NCP. Raju Sheety has an alliance with Shiv Sena - BJP - RPI of Ramdas Athavale.
Raju Shetty runs the Swabhimani Shetkari ( Kisan ) Sanghatana and he has an alliance with Mahadev Jankar's Rastriya Samaj Paksha. Raju Shetty is also the sitting MP from Hatkanangale in Kolhapur district. He is again contesting from the same seat.
In the past NCP had won this seat. But this time the NCP had to give this seat to the Congress as the party had no strong candidate against Raju Shetty in its own bastion. The Congress has fielded a senior leader of the party from the district Kalappa Awade. Awade's stature in district politics is posing a big threat to Raju Shetty, this time.
In Konkan region, the open battle between local workers of the Congress and NCP has created a problem for the Congress in Ratnagiri Sindhudurga.
Nilesh Rane son of cabinet minister in the state Narayan Rane is seeking a second term from here. But the local unit of the NCP in Sindhudurga district has refused to work for Rane. They allege that Rane does not follow 'allaince dharma' and ill treats the NCP workers. This has led to tension in the NCP-Congress alliance and likely to have a big negative impact in other constituencies for the alliance.
In this phase, Shiv Sena has 8, BJP 7, and its alliance partners have 4 candidates. The NCP is contesting in 10 seats and the Congress in remaining in 9 seats. In outgoing Lok Sabha, Shiv Sena has 5 MPs, BJP 2, Congress 6, NCP 4 and the others 2 respectively.
MAHARASHTRA - 19 LS SEATS
Total voters - Male - 16954391
Female - 15377605
Others - 306
Service- 95256
Total - 3, 24, 27, 558
LS SEATS
General: 16
SC: 03
Male Candidates - 334
Female Candidates - 24
Total: 358
Highest number candidates - Beed
Lowest number of candidates - Baramati
Largest constituency - Maval (1946127 Electors)
Smallest constituency - Ratanagiri- Sindhudurg (1363957 Electors)
Personnel Deployed - 376592
Polling Booths - 36879
Control Units - 70118
Ballot Units - 44254
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