Between 2009 lok Sabha election when he had romped home comfortably and the 2014 polls, a lot has changed — much to senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s dismay — both on his domestic front and on ground in his home constituency of Beed in backward Marathwada region.
Hemmed in by hurdles created by his estranged legislator-nephew Dhananjay and an aggressive ruling NCP leadership that has made it a prestige issue to defeat him, Munde is moving heaven and earth to retain the Beed seat, in one of the keenest electoral battles being witnessed in Maharashtra.
When Munde bagged the Beed seat in the 2009 polls by trouncing NCP’s Ramesh Adaskar by a handsome margin of 1,20,952 votes, his nephew Dhanjanjay — along with his daughter Pankaja Munde-Palve — had steered his campaign in the polls. Ironically, the same Dhananjay — who is now a ruling NCP MlC — is planning and plotting the defeat of his uncle, from whom he learnt ropes of politics.
Adding to Munde’s worries, five of Assembly segments in Beed lok Sabha constituency — Geroai, Majalgaon, Beed, Ashti and Kaij — are currently held by the ruling NCP, while his daughter Pankaja represents the only remaining Assembly segment of Parli.
Monitored personally by party chief Sharad Pawar and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar both of whom are going all out to ensure Munde’s debacle in the polls, the campaign of NCP’s candidate in Beed Suresh Dhas is being managed by Dhananjay, Guardian minister Jayadutta Kshirsagar, local ruling party MlAs and visiting party ministers. Both Sharad and Ajit Pawar and State Home Minister RR Patil have also addressed rallies for Dhas, while sitting NCP MP Supriya Sule and party’s RS member Majid Memon have also campaigned for Dhas.
That the beleaguered BJP leader is not leaving anything to chances can be evidenced from the fact that ignoring the stand taken by the BJP that it would not seek any support from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) during or after the 2014 lok Sabha polls, Munde himself called up Raj Thackeray on Tuesday morning and sought the MNS’ support for his candidature in Beed –a request that Raj granted. Raj asked his supporters in Beed to campaign for Munde.
Knowing that he would have to cover a lot of ground in the polls, Munde began campaign for his Beed contest at a “Maha-Yelgar” rally of the BJP-led “Maha-Yuti” (Opposition grand alliance rally) in February 16 and has since addressed over a dozen public rallies and meetings in various parts of the constituency since then. In the initial phase, Munde managed to wean away from former NCP Bhimrao londe, an ex-Independent MlA associated with the Sharad Pawar-led party Sahebrao Darekar into the BJP fold and elicited the support of NCP MlC and Maratha leader Vinayak Mete.