A joke making the rounds in Latur these days asks voters to select either a maaldar (rich) or a masaaledar (spicy) candidate. The adjectives identify Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress candidates respectively, largely because none of candidates seeking a term to Lok Sabha are familiar to Latur’s voters.
For the Congress, Latur is a test case to see whether the family of one of the most charismatic chief ministers of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh has managed to regain lost ground. For BJP, which has denied a ticket to it’s sitting MP, this is among the only two seats in Marathwada where it stands a chance of winning.
The voters see BJP’s Sudhakar Shrungare, who is in the construction business, as a maaldar candidate, with Machhindra Kamanth of the Congress, who is in the spice business, as the masaaledar opponent.
Till 2014, Latur had been one of the strongest bastions of Congress with just two losses in 1977 and 2004. Former Union Home minister Shivraj Patil remained undefeated for 24 years till 2004. Although BJP won the seat in 2004, Congress snatched it in 2009, when it was declared a reserved seat for Scheduled Caste, but lost again in 2014.
While Mr. Patil was busy in Delhi, Latur witnessed the rise of late Vilasrao Deshmukh. Mr. Deshmukh’s growth from sarpanch to CM and then to Union minister ensured continuous development in Latur. Such was his clout that his death reportedly led to drop in real estate prices in Latur so much so that a number of property agents went bankrupt.
After his death, his eldest son and Latur MLA Amit Deshmukh holds the fort for the party. Following a defeat in 2014 general elections, a not-so-impressive performance in the Assembly elections and then a defeat in the zilla parishad polls, the Deshmukh clan sees this election as an opportunity to reclaim its past glory.
Under Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Congress enjoyed virtually no opposition. Today, the BJP stands as a formidable force in the district with State’s Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar as its leader. Ironically, a majority of today’s BJP leadership in the area were once senior leaders of the Congress or had come from the Congress family background.
This general election is shaping up as a battle of supremacy between Mr. Deshmukh and Mr. Nilangekar.
Independent journalist Hamid Shaikh observes that despite the discontent over the government’s performance, both at the State and Centre, Congress campaign looks disoriented and unorganised. “The water woes continue, rural population is not happy, and traders have complaints. But that does not seem to be converting into votes due to the weakened organisational structure of the Congress.” says Mr. Shaikh.
Water availability has been one of the key issues in Latur for decades. Three years back, the BJP-led State government transported water through goods train. While experts term it as a mere stunt, it portrayed the BJP as a party which can go to any extent to solve the crisis. The crisis however still continues and city gets water supply once in eight days.
Latur is known as one of the biggest markets for tur dal and soyabean. A number of traders whom The Hindu spoke to accepted that demonetisation was not a good idea and impacted their business but said they would not vote based only on that. “I can’ tell you whether I will vote based only on that as we have recovered since,” says a trader.
Rambhau Hajare, who works as a driver in Latur, says five years is too short a time to give Narendra Modi a chance to prove himself. “We know that no one is clean in politics. There are no changes in our lives. We stood with Vilasrao always, but today I wouldn’t mind giving Modi another chance,” he says.