Going gets tough for saffron candidates in Parli, Beed

Aurangabad: The state assembly elections are turning out to be a litmus test for Pankaja Munde and Jaidutt Kshirsagar , both senior ministers in the Devendra Fadnavis government, as they are facing a tough challenge from their close relatives.

The NCP has fielded Dhananjay Munde, the opposition leader in the state legislative council, against his cousin Pankaja of the BJP in Parli and Sandeep Kshirsagar is fighting on a Shiv Sena ticket against his uncle Jaidutt.

Pankaja, who had won the seat in 2014 by a margin of about 24,000 votes from Parli, has reason to be worried as Dhananjay has made a dent into her Vanjari community bastion. The Maratha factor is another headache for her in view of the polarisation after the Sena-BJP leadership targeted NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.

A BJP worker from Parli said, “Prime minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Parli on Thursday drew huge crowds from different parts of the district and around. The rally might benefit Pankaja to some extent, but she will still have to struggle to repeat her 2014 performance.”

In Beed, Jaidutt is experiencing a strong anti-incumbency factor because of the dismal performance of the Beed municipal council, which his younger brother, Bharatbhushan, controls. The Kshirsagars also control numerous educational institutions.

A political observer from Beed said, “Many prominent candidates, particularly from smaller parties like MIM, are being looked at as Jaidutt acolytes as most of them were with him just before the dates for the assembly elections were announced.”

As many as 34 candidates are in the fray in Beed. “Jaidutt has lost his Muslim support base that he enjoyed for years as soon as he started cosying up to the BJP before joining Shiv Sena to contest the assembly elections,” said a former Jaidutt supporter, adding that the minister had a sizeable Maratha and Dalit following earlier.

On the other hand, Sandeep, in his thirties, enjoys considerable following among the youth. He got at least 20 councillors elected on his own in the Beed council and leads a group of three zilla parishad members.

Jaidutt, an experienced hand in electoral politics, was heavily depending on the division of Maratha and Muslim votes while banking on the traditional BJP-Shiv Sena votes. However, his graph is declining, pointed out an observer, who is following Beed elections for a long time.