‘Ahir did nothing to fight joblessness. His failure worked in my favour’

Suresh (Balu) Dhanorkar, former Shiv Sena MLA who contested Lok Sabha election from Chandrapur on Congress ticket, emerged as the giant killer in the state by defeating BJP stalwart and Union minister of state for home affairs Hansraj Ahir. Dhanorkar was also the face-saver for Congress as its lone MP in Maharashtra. With the Congress suffering another debacle in these elections, state party workers here now look upon the newly elected MP to rebuild the party. In an interview with TOI, Dhanorkar talked about his victory, its reasons and his priorities.
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How do you feel after securing a win in BJP’s bastion?
People favoured me even in the middle of Modi wave due to the work I did for them and for understanding the struggles of farmers across the constituency. I have been working since the last 22 years for Shiv Sena and have shouldered different responsibilities. I have quite an experience in fighting elections. Even as I got only 15 days (for campaigning), the hard work of Congress-NCP alliance leaders and the love of people paid-off.
BJP had pitted the election campaign in Chandrapur as a fight between Dudhwala (Ahir) and Daruwala (Dhanorkar). Did failure of liquor ban had any role in your victory?
Liquor is a 30-year-old business and I have legitimate licence to run it. In fact, when I became MLA for first time, I had four liquor licences. Is it wrong to do authorized business? Still, they made an issue out of it. Illegal liquor sale has become rampant and the ban on it has failed completely in Chandrapur, Wardha and Gadchiroli districts. If the government wants to have a positive impact, then it should impose prohibition in the entire state or lift prohibition from all three dry districts.
Did you feel that the caste factor worked in your favour during the elections?
Congress is a secular party and people from all walks of society have voted for me. It is for this reason that I polled more than 5.59 lakh votes, which is even greater than the vote share of Ahir in 2014 when he won by a margin of more than 2.3 lakh vote. It is the love of people which helped me to win from a place which is home to bigwigs like state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.
What role do you see anti-incumbency played in your victory?
There was dissatisfaction among the people against Ahir. His failure did work in my favour. He did nothing to combat unemployment during his 15-year-long tenure. Many steel and power plants in the district got closed during his regime.
What was the impact of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA)?
BJP had a negative impact during the elections due to VBA. The votes of Mali community swung in favour of VBA and BJP was the main loser. It did had some impact on Congress’ vote share. I would say VBA’s impact was 60% for BJP and 40% for Congress.
Now that you have been elected as an MP, what will be your priorities?
This is the district of Gond dynasty; hence, my first priority will be to obtain pattas of encroached land for the tribal community, which is dominant in the entire constituency. The issue of improve irrigation too will be on top of my chart. I will push for building at least five barrages on Wardha River to help improve irrigation, drinking water supply and also water for industries. Rejuvenation of closed industries and paving the ways to bring more industries here is on my mind. This way, there will far better employment opportunities here.