Lok Sabha elections 2024: In Maharashtra’s electoral struggle, friends have become enemies and foes have become friends

In the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, Maharashtra is seeing head-spinning political realignments where former partners have turned competitors and adversaries have become allies, according to news agency PTI. This is due to parties splitting up and new coalitions developing.

At Union Minister Amit Shah’s rally in Nanded on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Pratap Patil Chikhalikar and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan shared the platform, providing an example of this.

In 2019, Chikhalikar—then an MLA for the undivided Shiv Sena from Loha in the Latur district—joined the BJP. In the subsequent Lok Sabha elections, he defeated incumbent Congress MP Ashok Chavan from Nanded, a stronghold of the Congress.

Then-prime minister Devendra Fadnavis called Chavan a “dealer and not a leader,” while PM Modi attacked Chavan over the Adarsh society fraud at a campaign rally, according to PTI.

In February of this year, Chavan became a member of the Rajya Sabha after joining the BJP. He is now around the Marathwada district advocating for Chikhalikar and other BJP candidates.

In the Maval Lok Sabha seat in 2019, Shrirang Barne of the Shiv Sena beat Parth Pawar, the son of NCP leader Ajit Pawar. It was the first election setback experienced by a member of Sharad Pawar’s extended family.

In 2024, Ajit Pawar, who broke with his uncle to work with the BJP the previous year, is running for office with his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in support of Barne.

Barne, for his part, has joined the Shiv Sena, which is headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and he no longer has loyalty to Uddhav Thackeray. Shinde’s deputy in the state cabinet these days is Ajit Pawar.

Popular TV and movie actor Amol Kolhe, who was then a member of the unified Shiv Sena, is said to have been convinced by Ajit Pawar to join the NCP and challenge Shiv Sena MP Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil in the Shirur Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Kolhe overcame Patil and Adhalrao.

Kolhe is now with the NCP (SP), headed by Sharad Pawar. As per the seat-sharing agreement of the governing BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP ‘Mahayuti’ coalition, Ajit Pawar was given the Shirur seat. He then enrolled Adhalrao Patil into the NCP with the goal of defeating Kolhe. Now, Ajit Pawar will be running a campaign against his erstwhile apprentice, Kolhe.

Rahul Shewale, a two-time MP for the undivided Shiv Sena, is competing against Anil Desai in the Mumbai South-Central seat (UBT).

When the party broke apart in 2022, Shewale joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide Desai is mostly remembered as a backroom fighter. Desai is running in his first election as an opposition to his old colleague, having served out his time in the Rajya Sabha.

In an additional turn of events, Desai will rely on the backing of Mumbai Congress head Varsha Gaikwad, whose father, the late Eknath Gaikwad, was beaten by Shewale in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Two Pawar family members are in conflict in Baramati.

In the past, Ajit Pawar oversaw the electoral campaigns of his cousin Supriya Sule. His wife Sunetra Pawar has been put up by the NCP under his leadership to challenge three-time MP Supriya Sule.

Ajit’s younger brother Shrinivas and his family have come out in favor of Sule, which has created rifts in the family throughout the war.

Pankaja Munde, the older sister of the incumbent member of parliament Pritam Munde, was nominated by the BJP to replace her as the candidate in Beed.

In the 2019 assembly elections, Pankaja lost to her estranged cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde. Currently a member of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Dhananjay Munde will be running campaigns for Pankaja, the governing alliance’s nominee.

In Raigad on the seashore, Sunil Tatkare of the NCP narrowly beat veteran Shiv Sena MP Anant Geete in 2019. At that time, Congress had supported Tatkare since it was allied with the party of Sharad Pawar.

Tatkare is now associated with Ajit Pawar’s NCP, but Geete has remained loyal to Uddhav Thackeray’s camp after the Shiv Sena split, with support from the Congress and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).

“Both the Shiv Sena and the NCP were family parties before to Devendra Fadnavis’s orchestrated splits. The election has now evolved into a fight over Mahabharat, veteran political analyst and journalist Prakash Akolkar told PTI.

“While family members are fighting each other, they are also helping erstwhile enemies,” he said to PTI.