The Ramtek Assembly constituency in Maharashtra's Nagpur, once a Congress bastion, which later became a saffron citadel, is witnessing an interesting electoral battle this time with a former minister contesting as an independent.
Ramtek, which is one of 12 Assembly constituencies in Nagpur district, is part of the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat that was won by the Congress in this year's General elections. Sitting MLA Ashish Jaiswal, who had won this seat in the 2019 Assembly polls as an independent candidate, has now been fielded by the Shiv Shinde led by chief minister Eknath Shinde as a Mahayuti nominee. Vishal Barbate of Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT), who is contesting his maiden Assembly election, has challenged Jaiswal. But Rajendra Mulak, who was suspended by the Congress for anti-party activities recently, is posing a challenge and has an edge over both the MahaYuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidates, political experts feel.
Ramtek houses a historic temple of Lord Ram. It is believed that Ramtek was the place where Lord Ram rested during his exile. There are around 2.85 lakh voters in the constituency. This seat remained with the Congress for over two decades from 1962, and was won by the party again in 1991. Ashish Jailswal breached this Congress bastion for the first time when he won the seat as a candidate of the undivided Shiv Sena in 1999. He retained the seat in 2004 and 2009 as well. But in 2014, the BJP fielded Mallikarjun Reddy, who won it. However, Reddy was defeated by Jaiswal in 2019 after the latter contested as an independent.
Mulak is a protégé of former chief minister and Congress veteran Prithviraj Chavan and is also related to him. His father Bhau Mulak was state minister in the 1970s. Mulak has also served as a minister of state for finance and planning, energy and water resources in the Chavan-led cabinet.
Ramu Bhagwat, political analyst and senior journalist, said Ramtek was once known as the safe haven for the Congress. "It achieved political importance when former prime minister late PV Narasimha Rao contested from Ramtek Lok Sabha seat once. But ironically, the Congress symbol will be missing from this election scene for the first time as the party had to bow down before an adamant Shiv Sena (UBT) and give the seat to it in the seat-sharing talks," he said. "So although it may look like a straight fight between Sena (UBT)'s Barbate and Shiv Sena's Jaiswal, Mulak has jumped into the fray and has a good rapport in Nagpur's rural pockets," he said.
Mulak had earlier contested and won from the Umred Assembly constituency in Nagpur district. But after delimitation in 2009 the seat was reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates and turned out of bounds for Mulak, who is a Kunbi Maratha, Bhagwat said. "Since then he
worked for the party organisation in other parts of rural Nagpur" he added. According to Bhagwat, Mulak's clout can be gauged by the fact that even as he has been expelled from the Congress for six years, he is being actively supported by some party leaders.
