Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be ceding space in its bastion of Nagpur to the Congress, which was dominant in the district until the 1990s, according to the trends thrown up by the last few elections.
In the bypolls to zila parishads and panchayat samitis, the results for which were announced Wednesday, the BJP suffered a drubbing in Nagpur, which is home to the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Of the 16 zila parishad seats across 13 talukas of the Nagpur district that went to the bypolls, the BJP won just three while the Congress pocketed nine, and other parties won four.
Similarly, in the panchayat samiti bypolls, of the 31 seats across 13 talukas in Nagpur, only six went to the BJP, while 21 went to the Congress, and the rest to other parties.
Last year, the Congress also won the Nagpur division graduates’ constituency election for the Maharashtra Legislative Council, in what was a major setback to the BJP, because the party and its predecessor, the Jana Sangh, had held the seat for the last 58 years. Current Union minister Nitin Gadkari had once held the seat too.
In the 2014 assembly elections, the BJP had almost swept the district, winning 10 out of 11 seats, but in 2019, the party won seven, with the Congress winning three, and one going to an Independent.
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BJP ‘not able to reach out to people’
BJP leaders from the Nagpur district attribute the party’s dismal performance in the recent zila parishad and panchayat samiti bypolls to several reasons, including an increase in the Congress’ influence.
They say the party has not been able to effectively reach out to voters in the Nagpur district since 2019.
A senior BJP leader told ThePrint that the Congress has got all its big guns — ministers from the district such as Sunil Kedar and Nitin Raut, and the party’s Maharashtra president Nana Patole — to throw their weight behind the party for the by-election.
“Chandrashekhar Bawankule (of BJP) had the responsibility of steering the party’s campaign in the bypolls. He addressed a lot of rallies, but he is a former minister and a three-time MLA who was not even given a ticket in the 2019 assembly polls. Our rivals campaigned against him telling people that he doesn’t have any strong official position in the party, and so won’t have any pull in the police or the administration,” the leader said.
“So, while the Congress got its heavyweights from the Nagpur district to campaign, senior BJP office-bearers from the district such as Devendra Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari were not in the picture,” he added.
Bawankule did not comment on the charge that Nagpur’s voters did not take his rallies seriously, but told ThePrint: “The ground reality is that Congress ministers, MLAs, the state president all used their pull. There was a blatant use of power and money. Moreover, to a certain extent, the outcome of local polls depends on who is in government at the state level.”
He added that at many places where the Shiv Sena and NCP did not field a candidate, it helped the Congress, their partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi state government.
Krushna Khopade, BJP MLA from the Nagpur East constituency, told ThePrint, “Ever since the MVA government has come to power, not even a single development work has happened in the district. In contrast, the BJP did a lot of work between 2014 and 2019. But, somehow, we were not able to reach out to people and talk about it.”
How Congress made up lost ground
Nagpur, as well as the larger Vidarbha region, was traditionally a Congress stronghold till the late 1990s, when the BJP started making inroads.
Rajendra Mulak, Congress’ president for the Nagpur district, said, “The interim period was definitely a struggle for the Congress. Issues such as infighting led to the BJP gaining space in the Nagpur district. The cadre had weakened, proper consolidation was not happening.”
He said the recent election results show that when Congress leaders and karyakartas (workers) come together and put up a united effort, “they will see that people still have Congress in their hearts here”.
“We overcame all the issues within the party. We gave new people opportunities, strengthened our local units. It was a process and is now showing results,” Mulak added.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
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