BJP’s chances of winning the Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha Constituency are uncertain due to the influence of the Praful Patel factor
As part of his high-profile campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited two important Lok Sabha seats on April 10—they are located in the districts of Bhandara and Gondiya, as well as the town of Ramtek. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has directly fielded in Bhandara-Gondiya, it has given coalition partner Shiv Sena (Shinde) the seat in Ramtek. Nonetheless, these Vidarbha regions are essential to the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) bigger strategy to seize Maharashtra because of their proximity to Nagpur. Phase I voting will take place in the constituency on April 19.
One of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats is Bhandara-Gondiya. Its assembly segments are divided into three segments in the Gondiya district and three in the Bhandara district. Tumsar (NCP), Bhandara (Independent), Sakoli (INC), Arjuni-Morgaon (NCP), Tirora (BJP), and Gondiya (BJP) are its six assembly seats. On April 19, it will cast its first-phase vote.
Sunil Baburao Mendhe, the BJP’s current MP
Prashant Yadavrao Padole (INC), Sunil Baburao Mendhe (BJP), and Sanjay Gajanan Kewat (VBA) are the candidates.
DYNAMICS POLITICAL
BJP Sees Another Win: The BJP’s nominee for Bhandara-Gondiya is a shark in a sense, given the extent of his triumph in the 2019 elections. In 2019, Sunil Baburao Mendhe received more than 6.50 lakh votes, while Nana Panchbudhe of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) received 4.52 lakh votes, her main challenger. With almost 52% of the vote, the BJP won the largest proportion of the votes, with the NCP only managing to get over 36% of the total. The BJP believes that this time around, the battle in Bhandara-Gondiya would be much simpler. The Shiv Sena and NCP are split, and a Congress candidate is running, giving the saffron party the upper hand in the constituency’s “strike rate.” The BJP had a strong strike rate versus the Congress in head-to-head matches in both 2014 and 2019. In addition to the current President of the Maharashtra Congress, Nana Patole, who was elected on a BJP ticket in 2014, the Bhandara-Gondiya seat has elected notable figures throughout the years, including the former Union Minister Praful Patel, who is now a member of Mahayuti, three times on a Congress ticket.
Praful Patel: Praful Patel’s membership in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) now confers an additional benefit to the BJP. The NCP chief, who defected to the NDA last year along with Eknath Shinde’s group, has strongholds in Bhandara-Gondiya. Praful Patel made the decision to join the Rajya Sabha, despite the expectation that he would promote his own candidacy to represent the seat in the Lok Sabha. This essentially made it possible for the BJP to win Bhandara-Gondiya again in addition to just asserting their rights there. Despite favorable circumstances, reports from the ground indicate that the BJP has been aggressively searching for a fresh face to represent the seat. Parinay Phuke, a close confidant of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, was one among the names that went viral. But it seems that the party repeated incumbent MP Sunil Mendhe since Praful Patel consented to support his name.
Mendhe Unpopular: For good cause, the party did not search for other candidates. Mendhe is the target of several complaints. He is first seen as more of a Gondiya leader who has disregarded Bhandara for the previous five years. Additionally, voters bemoan accessibility issues and the inability to see their MP in person. For the most part of his time serving as an MP, Mendhe did not take the effort to stay in touch with his constituents at the local level; but, in recent months, as election season approached, he made a surprising comeback. Workers in the BJP are not pleased inside because Mendhe has continued to hold the position of chairman of the Bhandara Municipal Council despite being elected as an MP.
Problems for Farmers: Bhandara-Gondiya is a center for paddy farming. However, individuals working in this region’s paddy value chain have bemoaned the government’s and the incumbent MP’s lack of action to improve their wages and address other problems. Information from the ground indicates that there is noticeable disappointment with Sunil Mendhe in this area. PM Modi will run a campaign on his behalf because of this. The BJP is hopeful that the Modi factor, the party’s growth, and the Hindutva platform would enable it to win the seat once again.
Caste Division: The Powars, who make up the majority in Bhandara-Gondiya, have a history of supporting the BJP. The BJP has put up a Kunbi face in an effort to secure the support of this group, sensing that their support is still strong. Another significant population, the Telis, often find their support split between several parties including the NCP, BJP, and Shiv Sena. It will be interesting to watch where the Teli votes go now that the Congress is at war, having not had a vote in 25 years. Even if it meant fielding a candidate from outside the BJP, leaders of the Teli and Powar groups had requested a candidate from their respective castes in this seat. However, because both the Congress and the BJP nominated Kunbi candidates, it’s possible that neither party will get a significant portion of the Teli and Powar groups. The BJP denied tickets to members of the Teli community in the last assembly elections. As a result, the BJP lost in each of the district’s three assembly seats.
Congress’s tall order: In 1999, the Congress fielded a candidate in Bhandara-Gondiya, but Shrikant Jichkar lost by an agonizingly close margin. The Congress’s palm is back on the ballot after 25 years, but the party would have preferred for it to happen under more favorable circumstances. Prashant Yadavrao Padole, a fresh face from the constituency, has been fielded by the Congress. According to reports from the ground, up to half of voters do not even know who the Congress candidate is. There is a lot of debate in local political circles over why the Congress chose to run a candidate from the district who is comparatively weaker. Padole managed to get slightly more than 2,000 votes in the 2014 state elections, when he ran from the same seat as a Shiv Sena candidate. The Congress is betting that Nana Patole, the head of its state unit, would help maintain the party in the race despite the fact that its candidate has no previous political experience. Patole, who is from Bhandara-Gondiya, is well-known in the community in contrast to Prashant Padole.
VBA May Split Votes: Sanjay D. Kewat is another candidate put up by Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in the constituency. Given that a split of the Dalit and Muslim votes is now anticipated, the presence of VBA and BSP candidates in the race might significantly impede the Congress’s chances. This makes it possible for the BJP to win even more easily. In the area, VBA is largely influential in some areas. Indeed, the candidate of VBA’s predecessor, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, received more than 40,000 votes in the 2018 by-elections. In that election, Madhukarrao Y. Kukde of the NCP defeated Hemant S. Patle of the BJP.
VOTER INFOGRAPHY
Voters in total: 18 lakh
14,71,720 (80.4%) voters in rural areas
358,777 voters (19.6%) are urban.
SC: 15.7%
ST: 9.8%
Demography by Caste
Kunbis: Four hundred thousand
3.25 lakh in Telis
2.25 lakh Powars
Dhivars: One hundred thousand
Demography Based on Religion
84.09% of Hindus
Buddhism: 11.18 percent
2.6% of Muslims
ESSENTIAL ISSUE
Lack of irrigation and the agrarian crisis: In Bhandara-Gondiya, the primary crop produced is paddy. However, local farmers claim to have reaped little to no advantages.
Gosikhurd Irrigation Project: Despite being started in 1984, the project has not yet been put into service on the Wainganga River in Pauni Taluka, Bhandara district. The project has seen ten delays in 39 years. The state administration had set a new date of 2023, but again, because of insufficient financial allocations, completion was postponed. Ajit Pawar allocated Rs 853 crore for the project during the annual budget presentation for 2023, in contrast to the department’s suggested requirement of Rs 1,500 crore for 2022–2023. Significant losses in agriculture may be directly linked to the absence of this irrigation project.
Inflation: Throughout the Vidarbha area, people’s lives are being impacted by inflation. The growing cost of living has become a major political talking point, affecting not just metropolitan places like Nagpur but also semi-urban townships like Chandrapur and even the more rural districts like Ramtek. According to accounts from the ground, the solace that the free ration program offers is eclipsed by the rising expense of other commodities. Moreover, the problem goes beyond groceries and home goods. Financial hardship is further exacerbated by the high cost of power, and complaints over the quality of the grains at ration stores cast doubt on the efficacy of government assistance programs as a whole.
Caste Issues: The Kunbis, Powars, Telis, and Scheduled Castes make up the majority of the population of Bhandara-Gondiya. Caste identification is a major factor in how elections turn out. With the growing assertiveness and desire for participation from leaders of the Powar and Teli communities, the movement for caste-based representation has gathered pace.
Lack of industry: One of the main problems in Bhandara-Gondiya is the absence of industry. Ground sources state that BHEL was supposed to establish a facility in the area under Praful Patel’s direction, however, the plant was eventually closed. Additionally, there were talks on an Adani power project, but those talks also fell through. The locals are now disheartened and feel neglected by the federal and state governments as a result of this.
Employment and migration: There are insufficient job and skill-development possibilities for the Bhandara-Gondiya constituency. People are compelled to relocate to neighboring cities of Nagpur or to other states in quest of sustainable livelihoods due to a lack of large businesses and private companies. Reports state that between 50 and 60 percent of families are impacted by migration.
ENTREPRISE DEVELOPMENT
Gondiya’s Airway connection: Although Gondiya had an airport before independence, it didn’t have airway connection with the rest of India until 2022. The government’s low-cost regional airline FlyBig started offering regular, direct flights to Hyderabad and Indore in 2022 as part of the UDAAN program. But shortly thereafter, activities were halted. After then, the airport was shut down until October 2023, when IndiGo said it will begin doing business and provide flights to Hyderabad.
Ganeshpeth bus stand: The Maharashtra government has revealed plans to build a cutting-edge international bus terminal with facilities comparable to those found in airports at the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus station. This large-scale initiative is intended to act as a prototype for similar projects in other parts of the state. The project will provide Ramtek and the surrounding areas convenient bus service access to first-rate services.
Nagpur-Gondiya Expressway: The 127-kilometer Nagpur-Bhandara-Gondiya Expressway is a four-lane access-controlled roadway that would cross eastern Maharashtra, according to a plan made by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). Alternatively known as the Eastern Maharashtra Expressway, its purpose was to smoothly expand the 701-km Samruddhi Mahamarg (Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway), which was already under construction, from its beginning point in Nagpur. After the expressway is finished, it should only take around two hours instead of the current four to five hours to travel between Nagpur and Gondiya. This huge project is expected to cost over Rs. 12,000 crore, and the bidding procedure was already under progress at that time.
Road Extension in Bhandara and Gondiya: A November 2021 report states that the Public Works Department (PWD) in Maharashtra has expanded and concreted a few inter-district highways in the districts of Nagpur, Bhandara, and Gondiya, spending a total of Rs 1,103 crore during the previous two years. In Bhandara and Gondiya, the overall road widening is 130.36 km and 111.9 km, respectively. The roads leading to the main lakes, tiger reserves, religious places, and water fountains have been paved and enlarged.
