MUMBAI: Banking on a sympathy wave on one side and a new face on the other, both the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and MahaYuti are going to by-elections with some anxiety in the Nanded Lok Sabha seat – a Sikh pilgrimage centre - scheduled for November 20.
The by-election has been necessitated by the demise of sitting Congress MP Vasant B. Chavan on August 6 following a prolonged illness.
Overcoming huge political challenges, he was elected in the 2024 general Lok Sabha polls, trouncing the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Prataprao Patil-Chikhalikar, notching a victory margin of 59, 442 votes.
Chavan’s win, though not entirely unexpected, came months after the Nanded strongman, and ex-Chief Minister Ashok S. Chavan suddenly dumped the Congress to join the BJP in February.
This was a huge jolt-cum-loss to the Congress which was preparing for the LS polls, but it recovered soon to name the veteran party leader, Vasant B. Chavan from the Nanded Lok Sabha seat and he bagged it.
The going was far from easy, as Nanded is the bastion of the Chavan family, with a father-son Chief Minister duo – Shankarrao Chavan and Ashok Chavan – plus other elected representatives in the family.
After Vasant B. Chavan’s passing, the Congress has fielded his son Ravindra V. Chavan to contest his father’s Lok Sabha seat, hoping to politically encash the family’s goodwill and good image in the region, and a sympathy factor.
The BJP also sprang a surprise of sorts by dropping the ex-MP Chikhalikar and fielding Santuk Hambarde, the district party chief for the Nanded by-election.
Interestingly, Hambarde’s brother, Mohan Hambarde is a sitting Congress MLA from the Nanded South Assembly seat and is now fighting to retain it.
Mohan Hambarde is considered a close confidante of BJP MP Ashok Chavan and his family, as his kin Santuk Hambarde locks horns with Ravindra V. Chavan in the Lok Sabha by-polls.
However, miffed after BJP denied him the LS by-election ticket, Chikhalikar joined the ruling ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Ajit A. Pawar and was rewarded with a nomination from Loha-Kandhar Assembly seat, this time as a combined MahaYuti contestant.
One of the six Assembly segments, Bhokar – considered a family fortress of the Chavan clan – is being fought by BJP’s Shreejaya Chavan, daughter of Ashok Chavan.
The Nanded Lok Sabha by-polls has a crowd of 19 candidates vying for the seat, including the two chief contestants from the Congress and BJP.
The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi of Prakash Ambedkar has fielded Avinash V. Bhosikar, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party has nominated Pandurang R. Adgulwar, the Rashtriya Samaj Party has named Gangadhar Bange, besides others.
Comprising six Assembly segments, Bhokar, Naigaon, Deglur (SC), Mukhed, Nanded North and Nanded South, the historic town of Nanded with a dominant Sikh population is situated on the banks of River Godavari.
It is also world-famous for the Takhat Sachkhand Shri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib Gurudwara, one of the five high seats of authority of the Sikhs, and is the place where Guru Gobind Singhji, the 10th and last Guru of the community was martyred in October 1708.
Nanded district is within the dry Marathwada region of the state where the MahaYuti suffered huge electoral debacles in the 2024 LS elections, making it a prestige fight in the upcoming by-polls.