Cane bills, scarcity take a back seat in Solapur

KOLHAPUR: Non-payment of sugar cane bills and drought are not on the campaign talk in the assembly election in Solapur district. Most focus has been around the shifting political equations and electioneering.

The district, which is considered a part of the sugar bowl of the state, has around 45 private and cooperative sugar mills.

However, most of them are in poor financial condition. Eight of the ten rural assembly segments in the district are perennially drought-prone.

Despite having water scarcity, each constituency has an average of three sugar mills, which are controlled by politically influential leaders. Sources in sugar industry fear that many sugar factories may not be in position to start crushing season this year because of the drought. However, this major issue is missing from the poll campaign though several sugar barons are in the election fray.

The agrarian crisis has been limited to the criticism from the BJP and Shiv Sena, accusing the past governments of neglecting the water supply to the parched regions of the district. The NCP-Congress has revolved its campaign around dubbing the Fadnavis government as “anti-farmer”.

However, voters seem to be more influenced by local political equations. Solapur district witnessed large-scale import and export of the leaders in the past few months. Congress and NCP took the worst hit of defections. Such was the situation that the two parties struggled to find strong candidates in some constituencies. In two constituencies, NCP withdrew their candidates after officially announcing their names.

Seven constituencies, namely Pandharpur, Barshi, Karmala, Mohol, Malshiras, Sangola, Solapur south, are experiencing traditional rivalry among the political leaders, who have changed their loyalties. The most prestigious seat for Congress is Solapur city central where Praniti Shinde, daughter of former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, is attempting for third consecutive time. Sushilkumar has lost the last two Lok Sabha elections and this assembly election will decide his daughter’s future. Recently, Sushilkumar said the Congress and NCP are “tired” and need to be merged.

Solaur district is witnessing young candidates like Aniket Deshmukh of PWP in Sangola and veterans like Sudhakar Paricharak and Narsayya Aadam. Barring a few exceptions, all political parties have fielded candidates having agrarian background but farming does not figure in the campaign.

BJP-Sena has high hopes from Solapur district, which has been a traditional bastion of NCP, due to its victory in the Lok Sabha election. BJP had won both Lok Sabha seats – Madha and Solapur – in the district and is attempting to make further inroads.