Congress-NCP alliance positive

But BJP-Sena combine hopes to retain its dominance over region.

The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine in Maharashtra hopes to improve its performance in the 13 Lok Sabha seats from Vidarbha and Marathwada, which will hold the first phase of general elections on April 16. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, the alliance managed to win only two seats from the region.

As one Congress leader rightly put it, even if the party managed to get one more seat, it would achieve a 100 per cent improvement in its performance. However, even the most conservative political analysts from the state believe the state’s ruling Congress-NCP alliance is in a position to win at least three to four seats in the first phase of polls and have a chance on another two.

The alliance is hopeful that loan waiver and high minimum support price (MSP) of cotton will help it improve its performance, as they have somewhat diluted farmers’ anger towards the government. But more than these issues, better choice of candidates and caste combinations are likely to help the Congress-NCP combine to improve its performance in this region.

The other major alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, hopes it will retain its dominance over the region owing to issues like the failure of prime minister and chief minister’s special package in improving the lives of farmers from Vidarbha, rising prices of food articles and erratic power supply.

The Bahujan Samaj party (BSP), which played spoilsport for Congress-NCP in 2004 elections in the Vidarbha region, is also confident of opening its account in the state for the first time.

Despite infighting in the Nagpur unit of the Congress, party candidate and Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar is confident of scraping through in the constituency, as BSP candidate Manikrao Vaidya is expected to hurt BJP there. Till recently, Vaidya was vice-president of the local unit of the BJP. Besides, the teli community to which he belongs is a traditional BJP supporter.

In the neighbouring Ramtek constituency, the Congress appears to be better placed than the Shiv Sena, which has an MP in the 13th Lok Sabha. After delimitation, Ramtek became a reserved constituency for Scheduled Caste candidates. As a result, the Sena, which was finding it difficult to get the right candidate, had to import Kripal Tumane from the Congrees.

However, Congress candidate Mukul Wasnik is getting the support of the party’s local factions, as he was the only Congress candidate from Vidarbha for whom Sonia Gandhi held a pre-poll rally.

In another constituency where the Congress is expected to do better is Wardha, while the NCP is confident of winning from Buldhana, as its candidate Rajendra Shingne, a minister in the state Cabinet, has earned the reputation of a good administrator. However, the NCP’s most high-profile candidate from the region, Praful Patel, who will contest from the Bhandara-Gondia constituency, is finding himself on a sticky wicket.