Know your constituency: The big fight in Bhosari

mid-day examines Bhosari constituency, where rebel city presidents of MNS and Shiv Sena supporting an independent candidate may pose trouble for other parties

2014 candidates
Vilas Lande (NCP), Eknath Pawar (BJP), Sulbha Ubale (Shiv Sena), Hanumantrao Bhosale (Congress), Sachin Chikhale (MNS), Mahesh Landge (Independent)

Constituency history
Bhosari constituency had the NCP’s iron grip a decade ago, but the BJP and Shiv Sena have managed to make inroads in the last few years. In the BJP-Sena alliance, this seat was with the latter, but the BJP has staked claim over it this time. In 2009, Sena candidate Sulbha Ubale lost by mere 1,272 votes and the seat went to Vilas Lande, who contested as an independent.

Local dynamics
Although the NCP claims a strong base in Moshi, Charholi, Dighi and Talawade  the dominance has declined since the last election. Vilas Lande’s candidature was opposed by NCP corporators, including Datta Sane, and local leader Mahesh Landge is contesting as an independent.

Scenario is no different in Shiv Sena and MNS. The city presidents of both parties have rebelled against their official candidates with Sena’s Vijay Phuge and MNS’s Manoj Salunke have declared their support to Landge. The trio even organised a ‘parivartan melava’, pledging to defeat the sitting MLA.

Lande too is confident of winning the seat third time, banking on the division of votes between Sena’s Sulbha Ubale and BJP’s Eknath Pawar. Pawar’s candidature was endorsed by Nitin Gadkari, which did not go down well with Munde’s supporters. A popular leader among workers, Pawar has a strong chance of winning the election, especially
after Pankaja Munde’s ‘Sangharsh Yatra’.

3,54,730 Total number of voters in the constituency

Number of Voters 50,472

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