Bitter Fight In Sugar Belt

A beleagured Congress is fighting a pitched battle with the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party to retain its hold over the sugar-rich western Maharashtra region, where rumblings of discord between the feuding sugar co-operative barons are being cleverly exploited by the ruling alliance to their own advantage in the Lok Sabha elections.

However, if the situation does not change drastically before polling (in two phases, on February 22 and 28), the Congress is all set to repeat its performance of the 1996 Lok Sabha election when it bagged 10 out of the 12 seats in the region. The Sena-BJP has limited influence in this part of the state, although it is in the process of graduating to a major political force.

 

Western Maharashtra has been a traditional Congress bastion, the predominantly rural electorate remaining loyal to it even when anti-Congress waves swept the country in 1977 and 1989. No such sentiment prevails now. But the Sena-BJP leadership is making all out efforts to capture this region, having established its supremacy in the Vidarbha, Marathwada and Konkan regions during 1995 and 1996.

Following defections by prominent sugar co-operative barons like Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil and Jaywantrao Bhosale from the Congress to the BJP and the Shiv Sena respectively, a fragmented Congress and multi-cornered contests would have been to the advantage of the saffron alliance partners.

But Sonia Gandhis rather successful rallies in Solapur and Kolhapur on February 14 helped shore up the Congressmens spirits, while Sharad Pawars efforts in forging an alliance with the Republican Party of India and the Samajwadi Party helped ensure straight fights.

In the Satara constituency-once represented by former deputy prime minister Y B Chavan-there are only two candidates in the fray: Congress leader Abhaysinh Raje Bhosale and Sena member of the dissolved Lok Sabha H N Nimbalkar. The Congress had lost the seat in 1996 owing to the internecine feuds within its rank and file, and Nimbalkar had scraped through with a wafer thin margin.

A similar situation exists in Solapur, where former AICC general secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde has staked his political career, contesting against BJPs Lingraj Valyal. This seat was wrested by Valyal in 1996 from Congress sitting MP Dharmanna Sadul by a margin of around 17,000 votes. A third candidate in the form of Janata Dals Bharati Patil may again tilt the balance in favour of the BJP here.

The Congress is faced with a major challenge from the Shiv Sena in Ichalkaranji and Kolhapur constituencies, where former Congress leaders-turned-Shiv Sainiks Nivedita Mane and Vikramsinh Ghatge were in fray. A tough fight is also likely at Pandharpur.The situation is relatively much better for the Congress in Sangli and Karad constituencies, where its nominees Madan Patil and Prithviraj Chavan respectively are expected to win comfortably against weak rival candidates.