On counting day eve, Chavan’s home in Karad wears a deserted look

From a student, a slum-dweller, an autrickshow driver, a roadside vendor to cloth merchant, nobody wants to stick their neck out in favour of Chavan. Some neighbours of Chavan say he might win, others say it is not possible.

Vikram Shah, a 21-year-old, seems to echo the sentiment of those who do not feel Chavan will emerge trumps. “When baba was the CM for three-and-a-half years, he hardly visited his constituency. I never saw him. He never even visited the gram panchayats or the council offices. He was never actively involved with development process here,” says Shah, who stays a stone’s throw away from Chavan’s house.

Abhijit K, a slum-dweller, who lives opposite Chavan’s residence, cannot say who will win this election— an opinion most slum-dwellers seem to share.

Suresh Mehta (53), a roadside watch-maker in Patan Colony, says,”There is no guarantee that Chavan will win…most of the time he was busy in Delhi or when he came here, he only caused traffic jam.”

Vilas Chavan, a farmer, says “Undalkar kaka visited our village at least thrice during campaigning, baba never came. Besides, whether it is roads, toilets or water tanks, only kaka provided us with these basic amenities,” he said.

However, Parvati Nalwade, (50), a tea vendor, says, “Amcha babach jinkar…(Only our baba will win).” Azam Khan, a mechanic hopes his baba would win. “He is Mr Clean, after all,” he says.

Voices like these were few and far between in the colony where Chavan have held supremacy for decades. They might not believe that he will win, but in Karad everyone fondly addresses Prithviraj Chavan as “baba”. “The family, however, is confident Chavan will win. “He will win cent per cent,” said Chavan’s sister Vridula Ghorpade, a view shared by other relatives including daugthers-in-law.