Despite the ‘Modi factor’ propelling the Bharatiya Janata Party juggernaut, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party have managed to hold on in the sugar belt of western Maharashtra, a traditional stronghold of the two parties.
Most of the top leaders of the former Congress- NCP Democratic Alliance weathered the storm. The former Chief Minister and Congressman, Prithviraj Chavan, and the former Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader, Ajit Pawar, have won with comfortable margins in South Karad and Baramati.
Together, the erstwhile allies have retained more than a third (29) of their combined seat tally of 83 seats in this belt. In contrast, in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-Sena-Swabhiman Paksha won six of the 10 seats in the belt.
Mr. Ajit Pawar won in Baramati by an impressive margin of more than 42,000 votes, dispelling gloomy predictions of doom for Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Mr. Chavan, who was locked in a fierce contest with rebel Congressman and seven-time MLA, Vilas Patil Undalkar, won by a comfortable lead of more than 16,000 votes.
Top NCP and Congress leaders managed to hold their own though the BJP and the Shiv Sena made inroads in the region, winning more than half the 70 seats in the six districts of Pune, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar and Solapur.
NCP stalwarts Jayant Patil and the former Home Minister, R.R. Patil, coasted along comfortably winning their constituencies of Islampur and Tasgaon (both in Sangli district).
Praniti Shinde, daughter of Congress satrap and the former Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, had a close shave in the fight for the Solapur City Central seat. Ms. Shinde eventually won by a margin of 9,000 votes, defeating Mahesh Kothe of the Shiv Sena.
The defeat of Congress stalwart and former Minister Harshavardhan Patil at his home turf in Indapur is being attributed more to the Dhangar (shepherd community) reservation issue than one of ailing sugar cooperatives. Incidentally, Mr. Patil lost to NCP candidate (Dattatrey Bharne), not a BJP or a Sena contestant.
Most of the gains of the BJP in the sugar belt were concentrated in urban areas like Pune city, where the party demolished the opposition, sweeping all eight Assembly seats. In contrast, the Sena has been more successful in the rural areas of the sugar belt, where most of its 15 wins are spread.
However, the BJP’s ploy of cashing in on popular grassroots movements — like the Raju Shetti’s Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and Mahadev Jankar’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksha — in a bid to challenge the NCP’s sugar barons came a cropper with both its constituent parties failing to open their account.
