NCP appears weak in cash-rich sugar belt of Ahmednagar

Neighbouring Kopergaon too faces a piquant situation as NCP leader Shankarrao Kolhe’s daughter-in-law Snehalata has joined the BJP and is contesting against Shiv Sena MLA Ashok Kale’s son Ashutosh. At Rahuri, when NCP leader and former rural development minister Jayant Patil’s brother-in-law Prasad Tanpure did not get the NCP ticket, the family fielded Patil’s sister and Prasad’s wife Usha as a Shiv Sena candidate. She faces sitting BJP MLA Shivajirao Kardile.

At Nevasa, Congress leader Balasaheb Murkute has got the BJP ticket and faces NCP’s sitting MLA Shankarrao Gadakh, while NCP’s Rajeev Rajale who lost the Lok Sabha elections this year to BJP’s Dilip Gandhi has now fielded his wife Monica on a BJP ticket from the Shevgaon-Pathardi constituency.

Reserved for a Scheduled Tribe candidate, the Akole constituency with 191 villages under it has former tribal affairs minister Madhukar Pichad of the NCP as its sitting MLA. Pichad has decided to let his son Vaibhav contest the seat. Vaibhav is facing challenge from Ashok Bhambre, who recently quit the Congress and joined the BJP. Bhambre is a well known tribal leader in the area whose family had been with the Congress for generations.

An iron grip over the cooperative sector in the region has had the Congress-NCP in control at Ahmednagar. Barring Shirdi and Sangamner where sitting Congress MLAs Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and Balasaheb Thorat reign supreme, several of the remaining segments face a neck-and-neck fight.

According to political observer Girish Kulkarni from Ahmednagar, battle lines have clearly been drawn between Congress and NCP. “It is simply old wine in a new bottle. While hardly anyone is leaving the BJP, only time will tell whether there will be a huge swing in votes,” he said.