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Maha polls: Chandrapur fight turns into men versus women voters
A leader of Opposition in the state Assembly versus anti-liquor activist – the fight in Bramhapuri in Chandrapur has virtually split men and women voters into two
A leader of Opposition in the state Assembly versus anti-liquor activist – the fight in Bramhapuri in Chandrapur has virtually split men and women voters into two camps.
The straight battle between Vijay Wadettiwar, who played a role in getting the lone Congress Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra Suresh Dhanorkar elected from Chandrapur, and Shiv Sena’s Sandeep Gaddamwar, son of veteran Congress leader and former Zilla Parishad president, Wamanrao Gaddamwar, took an interesting turn as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded woman activist, Paromita Goswami.
Goswami had successfully launched a massive agitation on liquor prohibition that led to the state government imposing liquor ban in the district. She decided to contest from Bramhapuri to “teach” a lesson to Wadettiwar, who she says was against the liquor ban. She is relying on the strong network of her social organization, Shramik Elgar. She dismissed Gaddamwar as a threat, and held that it will be a straight fight between AAP and the Congress. “I am getting an overwhelming support of women voters who are my strength. People want a representative who can improve health care and education, and bring employment to the constituency. The past representatives have failed utterly on these fronts,” she pointed out.
Reacting to Goswani’s allegations, Wadettiwar said the Chandrapur district has now become a den of illicit liquor.
“Several people died after consuming spurious liquor. If the administration fails to effectively implement the prohibition order, then better it lift the ban,” he said.
The Bramhapuri Assembly constituency in Chandrapur is known to change allegiance every few elections. They have so far elected candidates from the Congress, BJP, Shiv Sena, Janata Dal and even an independent. After three consecutive wins in Bramhapuri, BJP had lost the seat to Congress’ Wadettiwar in 2014.
Gaddamwar, an ex-NCP leader, had fought as an independent and NCP candidate, respectively in the past two elections. Wadettiwar is confident about his victory and cited the development works done by him in the constituency, party network and support of NCP to back his claim. He dismissed any challenge from Goswami and also dismissed chances of Gaddamwar, stating that the Sena has no grip over the constituency. “The Sena has no representative in municipality, zilla parishad or panchayat samiti. People know it quite well that Gaddamwar is an opportunist. He dumped the NCP because he was getting Sena ticket,” he said.
Gaddamwar maintained that he has good network of his own and with the BJP’s support, his victory is assured.
“Goswami’s entry will work to my advantage and dent Congress votes,” he said. Gaddamwar is betting on retaining votes he had got as NCP candidate in the last election (Congress and NCP contested separately in 2014) and now banks on the BJP vote share. Wadettiwar, who used to contest from Chimur shifted to Bramhapuri in 2014, and defeated then sitting MLA, Atul Deshmukh of BJP by 13,610 votes.
