If the “taint” of the Adarsh scam has weighed him down markedly, the pro-BJP atmosphere whipped up in Nanded lok Sabha constituency by NDA’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has unsettled Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to no end. No wonder that the otherwise laid-back Chavan is sweating it out to hold onto the family turf and a traditional Congress bastion in the Marathwada regime. It is being seen as a “do-or-die” battle.
Not many had expected that the Congress would run the risk of fielding him as its candidate from Nanded. However, when the Congress eventually preferred Chavan to his brother-in-law and sitting MP Bhaskarao Khatgaonkar as its candidate from Nanded, party president Sonia Gandhi herself defended her party’s decision saying that he had not been barred under any law from contesting the lok Sabha polls. Chavan himself went to town saying that “winnability” was one of the factors that prompted his party to field him as its nominee.
Right from day one, Chavan has been downplaying the Adarsh scam, saying that it is not an issue in the polls. But, the tremendous public response Modi elicited at his public rally on March 30 and the stinging manner in which he attacked Chavan on the Adarsh scam issue at that rally have electrified the atmosphere in the town, where the tide appears to be turning steadily against the former Chief Minister.
“There was already considerable anger against Chavan over the Adarsh scam among people. But, the Modi rally has consolidated the mood of people totally against Chavan. The two factors — Adarsh and Modi — have made matters easy for me in the polls,” says Chavan’s main rival and BJP nominee DB Patil. Patil had defeated Chavan’s brother-in-law Khatgaonkar in the 2004 lok Sabha polls by a margin of 24,335 votes.
The son of late CM and former Union Home Minister Shankarrao Chavan talks of the development that he has done for Nanded city both as the Chief Minister and in the run-up to the tri-centenary Guru-ta-Gaddi celebrations of Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhs held in the city in 2008. But, the fact remains that the development has come to a standstill ever since he resigned as the Chief Minister on November 9, 2010, following the exposé of the Adarsh scam.
“What development Ashokrao is talking aboutIJ Both Ashokrao and his father were CMs. But, they have not brought any major industry to Nanded district. Nor have they created job opportunities. We still have frequent power shutdowns…. Farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their sugarcane produce.
As against a price of 2,400 per tonne of sugarcane offered by other sugar factories in the area, the Bhaurao sugar cooperative factory run by the Chavan is paying Rs 1,700 per tonne of sugarcane which is Rs 700 less per tonne,” says Patil.
The recent hailstorm which wreaked havoc on crops has become an issue in the elections. Both the ruling DF and Opposition Sena-BJP alliance leaders are holding out promises to the farmers in the area. At an election held rally at Mukhed, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde, while campaigning for Patil, said at an election rally on Sunday that his party, if voted to power at the Centre, would announce crop loans for hailstorm-hit farmers. He also spoke of waiver of power bills for farmers.
Barring four terms, Nanded has been under the control of the Congress since 1952. There are 23 candidates in the 2014 poll fray in Nanded. Apart from Ashok Chavan and DB Patil, the other candidates in the fray include: BSP’s Hansraj D Vaidya, AAP’s Granthi Narendrasingh Anmol Singh and Vishwanathrao Balaji Shinde of the Samajwadi Party. However, for all practical purposes, it will be a straight contest between Chavan and Patil. Of the total 16.6 lakh voters in the constituency, there are an estimated 3 lakh Muslims, four lakh Marathas, two lakh Dalits and 20,000-odd Sikhs in the constituency.
Chavan virtually controls the 81-member Nanded-Waghala City Municipal Corporation (NWCMC), where the ruling Congress has a strength of 41 members. Interestingly enough, the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (MIM), a Hyderabad-based political party which surprised many in the state political circles by winning 11 seats in the 2012 polls in the NWCMC, has not fielded any candidate in the lok Sabha polls.
Having reportedly entered into a tacit understanding with Chavan, the MIM has not entered the Nanded contest so as to facilitate the Congress candidate cornering a majority of the Muslim votes in the constituency. Modi’s blistering attack on him at his March 30 election rally in Nanded is proving to be a blessing disguise for Chavan who, locals say, can expect en masse support from the Muslim community in the constituency. Notwithstanding the large support that he enjoys among the Muslims in the constituency, Chavan finds the going tough in Nanded, where he carries the “taint” like an albatross around his neck and has to contend with the daunting Modi factor.