In Nagpur neighbourhood, Congress-NCP ‘local’ campaign takes fight to ruling BJP

Nana Patole during their campaign. (Express photo by Deepak Daware)

Nana Patole’s resignation as a Lok Sabha MP and his exit from the BJP are the talk of the towns and villages in Bhandara-Gondia as the constituency on the westernmost edge of Maharashtra heads for Lok Sabha by-election on May 28.

“Bhau, you shouldn’t have resigned. It has unnecessarily called for an election less than a year before the next Lok Sabha polls,” said a villager in Chikli, in Arjuni-Morgaon Assembly segment, where Patole was campaigning late Tuesday evening.

Having criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of functioning, Patole quit the BJP in December 2017, and subsequently joined the Congress. Campaigning for NCP’s Madhukar Kukde, the Congress-NCP alliance candidate, Patole told the villager, “Your MP was getting nothing in BJP — I getting nothing means you got nothing — and he had the courage to stand up to no less a person than Narendra Modi. I did not face any allegation of corruption in my entire political career — not even misappropriation of one rupee…. As for causing a bypoll, didn’t Modi himself and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath do the same?”

At his next stop, Saundad, even as Patole addressed the crowd, two villagers discussed the same issue. Patole has reasons to explain his resignation, for the ruling BJP has made it an issue. While campaigning here, both Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari — both are from neighbouring Nagpur — have played the “imposed” and “unnecessary” election card against Patole.

Madhukar Kukde. (Express photo by Deepak Daware)

Dismissing the charge by saying that it will, in fact, help Kukde, who had left the BJP for NCP in 2014, the former MP said, “It will go against them (BJP). What they are saying is a bypoll is caused by an incumbent’s death. But people will not like it (that argument).”

With no local bigwigs to fortify its candidate Hemant Patle’s position, the BJP is banking heavily on the likes of Fadnavis, Gadkari and state Power Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Kukde has three-time MP Praful Patel of NCP and Patole himself to campaign for him.

“It’s 50-50 as of now,” a senior Congress leader said, when asked about the likely result. “It all depends on who is able to convince the voters better in the last few days (campaigning ends Saturday evening). Although people may have a sense of election being thrust on them, the genuine coming together of NCP and Congress can tilt the scales in our favour.”

Patel himself is addressing more than five rallies a day in various Assembly segments and sticking to people’s issues to buttress his call for a change. Exuding confidence, he said, “We have a clear edge. The BJP’s campaign against Patole — that he has thrust the election upon the people — makes little sense, as Patole himself is not contesting. The sizeable Dalit, tribal and fishermen votes are also going to be with us in the wake of atrocities on people from the lower castes in the last four years (of BJP government).”

The caste factor is expected to play a role. Kukde is a Kunbhi, and is likely to be backed by most people from the community, which forms the biggest chunk of voters (about 4 lakh), followed by Powars and Telis (around 2.5 lakh each). Unlike in other constituencies, Telis have had several Congress and NCP MLAs here.

But how will the alliance take on the mighty organisational network of the BJP and Sangh in the traditional BJP bastion? Kukde replied, “If it was invincible, how did Praful Patel won here thrice?”