5 key constituencies in Maharashtra and their neck-and-neck battles to watch out for

From BJP-Sena rivalry to estranged cousins, these 5 Maharashtra seats show why the assembly elections here are just a bit more interesting.

Aaditya Thackeray won from the Worli constituency Thursday | PTI

Mumbai: Most exit polls on Maharashtra assembly elections have predicted a one-sided affair, with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance set to storm back to power. But, as the Election Commission counts votes Thursday, there are a number of constituencies to watch out for — either for some neck-and-neck contests or their high-profile candidates.

ThePrint has picked five of Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats where the results could send some strong political message.

Kankavli, Sindhudurg district

While the BJP and Shiv Sena had forged an alliance for this assembly elections, this constituency in Konkan’s Sindhudurg district is the one of the two seats where the two parties were pitted against each other.

BJP’s Nitesh Rane, son of former chief minister Narayan Rane, who had defected to the Congress and joined the BJP, will take on Shiv Sena’s Satish Sawant. Nitesh had won the seat in the 2014 assembly elections as a Congress member.

While the seat was in the BJP’s quota in its seat-sharing pact with the Shiv Sena, Rane also happens to be the arch-rival of the latter for years. The Shiv Sena had earlier refused to campaign for any Rane family member and also, informally, requested the BJP to not field one.

The BJP, however, lacks presence in this Konkan region which is a Shiv Sena forte. The Rane family, which hails from Sindhudurg, has some clout in the district and the BJP is hoping to use it to get a foothold in the region. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray had even held separate rallies here in support of their respective candidates.

Karjat Jamkhed, Ahmednagar district

This constituency in the Ahmednagar district will be another interesting watch as it has become a battleground between BJP incumbent Ram Shinde, who is also a minister in the Fadnavis-led cabinet, and Pawar family debutant Rohit Pawar. A two-time MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed, Shinde had won the 2014 assembly elections from here by a margin of 37,816 votes.

The last time a new Pawar had entered the electoral fray was when Parth Pawar, grand nephew of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, contested the Lok Sabha elections from Maval constituency. He lost to Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne and became the first Pawar to lose an electoral battle.

Like Parth, Rohit, also a grand nephew of Sharad, has taken on a gamble by choosing a constituency that is not a sure shot NCP forte.

Baramati, Pune district

While the BJP has been aggressively expanding across Maharashtra, the one constituency on which it had set its eye but has been unable to make considerable inroads is the Pawar family’s home turf of Baramati in Pune district. The Baramati parliamentary constituency had been held by Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, while the assembly segment by his nephew Ajit Pawar.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had put up a tough fight to the NCP in Baramati. Mahadev Jankar, chief of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP), an NDA ally, had lost to Sule by a margin of about 70,000 votes — the lowest victory margin for the Pawar family in this constituency. But in the assembly election the same year, Ajit comfortably defeated BJP’s Prabhakar Gawade by 89,791 votes. Sule too held on to the family bastion in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

This time, the BJP has fielded Gopichand Padalkar, a Dhangar, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Sangli as a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate. He drew 3 lakh votes, proving his popularity among the Dhangars. He was fielded by the BJP this time from Baramati, where Dhangars are the second largest population after the Marathas.

Even as Baramati is perceived to be a sure shot win for the NCP, the winning margin is likely to give an idea of how successful the BJP has been in its efforts to cut into the Pawar family’s vote bank.

Worli, Mumbai city district

This Mumbai constituency is likely to see one of the most one-sided battles with Aaditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son, taking on NCP’s Suresh Mane, a Dalit activist and former state president of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Twenty-nine-year-old Aaditya is the first to contest a direct election from his family, which until now had preferred to sit at Matoshree, their suburban Bandra bungalow, and operate the party and the government with remote control.

While Aaditya had campaigned extensively in Worli, the Shiv Sena has also put all its strength in clinching this constituency, including inducting NCP’s Sachin Ahir, the only tall leader from the opposition in an otherwise Sena-dominated constituency.

Parli, Beed district

Two dynasts, both estranged cousins, have fought this election rather bitterly to lay claim to the legacy of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde in this constituency in Marathwada’s Beed district.

Pankaja Munde, daughter of Gopinath Munde, is seeking a third term as an MLA from this constituency, while her arch rival is her cousin and senior Munde’s nephew Dhananjay Munde. Dhananjay, leader of the opposition in the state legislative council, had quit the BJP to join the NCP in 2013, angered by the fact that his uncle chose to promote his daughter over him.

There was also an apparent sympathy wave in favour of Pankaja during the last assembly elections after her father died in an accident only four months before the polls. She triumphed over Dhananjay with a margin of 25,895 votes.

In the last leg of campaigning, an FIR was also lodged against Dhananjay for allegedly making obscene remarks against Pankaja after a purported video had gone viral. He, however, said the clip was fake and “distorted”.