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Of sugar belts and bitter pills

Known as the state's sugar bowl, the region remained invincible for the Congress till the 1996 Lok Sabha election when the Sena-BJP alliance for the first time captured three seats. Notwithstanding the losses, the region returned nine Congress MPs at a time when the party suffered a near rout in the state's other regions -- Konkan, north Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha.

In fact, the region contributed a face-saving two-third of the 15 seats the Congress won in Maharashtra in 1996. The Congress lost the three seats -- Kopergaon, Satara, Solapur -- by margins ranging between 11,000 and 22,000 votes, mainly because of the rebellion over distribution of tickets in the party.

The cradle of the co-operative movement, the region accounts for more than 50 per cent of the co-operative sugar factories in Maharashtra and has also been a pioneer in co-operative dairying and agro-industries, providing a strong backbone to the state's rural economy.

Four chief ministers, including the legendary Y B Chavan who later rose to become deputy prime minister, the late Vasantrao Patil, Babasaheb Bhosale and three-time chief minister Sharad Pawar hailed from this region. Pawar seeks re-election from Baramati in Pune district for the fourth time.

Political observers do not consider it easy going anymore for the Congress in the region. Since ascending to power in the state in 1995, the Sena-BJP alliance has worked hard to storm the region, wooing the sugar barons who hold the key to the agrarian votebank in this sugarcane rich area. In the 1995 assembly election the Sena-BJP alliance together won 15 of the region's 72 seats.

The alliance has not looked back since then and the crossing-over of several leaders -- including Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and his father Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil, the former MP who heads the Pravara co-operative sugar factories and a string of educational institutions in Ahmednagar district -- from the Congress to the Sena fold, has further boosted its morale.

Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil is a minister in the Sena-BJP ministry while his father has been nominated by the Sena from Ahmednagar for the Lok Sabha poll. The alliance also feels encouraged by Shahu Maharaj, the former ruler of Kolhapur, joining the Sena.

But things are not as easy as they appear for the alliance. The decision allowing sugarcane growers to sell surplus sugarcane to factories outside their zones, has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The Congress has been focussing on this issue as among the "list of misdeeds" of the Sena-BJP government which it alleges was "inimical" to both the cane-growers and the growth of co-operative sugar factories.

There are 78 candidates in the fray for the 12 seats from the Lok Sabha constituencies of Ahmednagar, Baramati, Ichalkaranji, Karad, Khed, Kolhapur, Kopargaon, Pandharpur, Pune, Sangli, Satara and Solapur. Their fate will be decided by more than 13 million voters, including 6.4 million women. The latter outnumber men in the Karad and Satara constituencies.

Pune, from where Suresh Kalmadi, former minister of state for railways and a Congress rebel is seeking re-election as an Independent supported by the Sena-BJP alliance, has the highest number of 15 candidates. Satara, from where Shiv Sena MP Hindurao Naik- Nimbalkar is seeking a second term, has just two candidates; the MP is being challenged by Congress nominee Abhaysinhraje Bhosale, MLA, former state minister and a direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Kolhapur, where the Congress has replaced its MP Udaysinhrao Gaikwad by former state minister Sadashivrao Mandlik, will witness a triangular contest.

Baramati and Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur district -- where Congress candidate Baburao Kallappa Awade is seeking re-election -- have nine candidates each.

Besides Pawar (Baramati) and Kalmadi (Pune) other key contestants in the region are former Congress general secretary Sushilkumar Shinde (Solapur), five-time Congress MP and now Sena candidate Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil (Ahmednagar), BJP MP Bhimrao Vishnuji Badade (Kopargaon), six-time MP Sandipan Thorat (Pandharpur), and Maharashtra minister Anna Dange (Sangli).

The Congress is contesting all the 12 seats. The BJP has fielded candidates in five constituencies -- Solapur (Lingraj Valyal, MP), Kopargaon (Bhimrao Badade, MP), Sangli (Dange), Pandharpur (Changdeo Kamble, the loser in 1996), Baramati (Viraj Kakade) -- while the Sena is contesting six seats -- besides Ahmednagar and Satara, Khed (Nanabal Kavade), Karad (Jayawantrao Bhosale), Ichalkaranji (Nivedita Mane) and Kolhapur (Vikramsinh Ghatge). The Sena-BJP alliance has left Pune uncontested and will support Kalmadi.

The Congress, among its nine wins in the region in 1996, registered a victory margin of more than 160,000 votes in Baramati, 174,000 votes in Sangli, 149,000 votes in Karad. The Sena lost the Khed seat by a narrow margin of 18,569 votes and its 1998 candidate Nivedita Mane, contesting as an Independent, lost the Ichalkaranji seat by just over 28,000 votes. The Sena won Satara by 11,809 votes while the BJP among its two victories, won Solapur by just 17,087 and Kopargaon by 20,251 votes.

Among the Congress candidates are six new faces. Among the latter are Shinde, a Rajya Sabha member seeking entry into the Lok Sabha for the first time; the candidates in Satara (Bhosale), Khed (Ashok Mohol), Kopargaon (Prasad Tanpure) and Kolhapur (Mandlik) are MLAs. In Pune the party has fielded Vithal Tupe, a former MLA against Kalmadi.

The Congress, which is in a once-bitten, twice-shy situation, is taking no chances, and unlike the 1996 poll, presents a picture of unity with the rank and file working with renewed vigour. Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to address two rallies in Kolhapur and Solapur on February 14.

The Sena-BJP alliance made a headstart in the matter of rallies. Its leaders including Sena chief Bal Thackeray, BJP prime ministerial candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party president L K Advani along with Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde have already addressed a series of rallies in the region.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Sena to field Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil in Ahmednagar
Ex-bureaucrat Dharmadikari joins the fray in Pune
Pune ex-MP Anna Joshi quits BJP
BJP fields Kakade against Pawar

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