Late rains spoil election campaign

Political parties had kicked off their campaigns in Maharashtra amidst an erratic monsoon, making it a key issue for the coming Assembly elections. Now, late showers in various parts of the state are forcing many parties to reschedule or even cancel their campaign for the October 13 polls.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi was scheduled to address a rally in Nashik on Monday, but that had to be deferred to Tuesday due to rains.

Nationalist Congress Party chief (NCP) Sharad Pawar, who is on a whirlwind tour of the state, is already at the receiving end of the showers. Last week in Badnera, just when Pawar started addressing a well-attended rally for Sulbha Khodke, a drizzle started and many of the NCP supporters started leaving, even while their star leader was busy attacking Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray.

According to NCP spokesperson Madan Bafna, Pawar has already cancelled at least 10 rallies in the state so far.

Sunday is usually a crucial day for election campaigns but in Jalgaon, regular evening rains forced its local MLA and heavyweight Shiv Sena candidate Sureshdada Jain to cancel some of his meetings.

In Akola, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil had to campaign for NCP candidate Pratibha Avchar on Saturday. But due to continuous rains, he had to change his plan.

Pawar was coming to Sonepeth area in Parbhani district to attend a joint rally of the Congress and NCP. But due to bad weather, the pilot diverted the chopper towards Beed and the NCP chief’s rally was cancelled.

BJP President Rajnath Singh had to come to Nashik from Mumbai today by a chopper. But the pilot refused to fly and Singh had to come by car. By the time Singh reached Nashik, according to the local BJP leadership, many people had left the rally.