Triangular contest in textile town of Bhiwandi

Bhiwandi parliamentary constituency has a mix of urban and rural areas, divided into six assembly constituencies

Mumbai: Union minister of state for Panchyatai Raj Kapil Patil secured easy victories from Bhiwandi in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But he faces a tough, triangular contest this time, fighting against the NCP (SP)’s Suresh Mhatre and independent candidate Nilesh Sambre, who has the backing of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).

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Once a prominent NCP leader from the Thane rural area, Patil was chairman of the Thane District Cooperative Bank. He joined the BJP in 2014 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhiwandi, both in 2014 and 2019. Seeking a third term now, his main worry is the anti-incumbency factor.

Patil’s primary opponent is Mhatre, who began as a Shiv Sena worker and later joined the NCP. He sided with NCP founder Sharad Pawar following the split in the party engineered by Ajit Pawar and is currently trying to cobble together an alliance of Dalits, Muslims and Agris, the community he belongs to, who are in significant numbers.

Patil and Mhatre had a direct fight in the two previous elections. But Sambre’s candidature in this election has turned the contest into a three-cornered fight, with each side trying their best to woo voters. Earlier this week, Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Kalyan West in support of Patil, while NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed a rally for Mhatre, and VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar addressed a rally in support of Sambre.

Bhiwandi parliamentary constituency has a mix of urban and rural areas, divided into six assembly constituencies – Bhiwandi Rural, Shahapur, Bhiwandi West, Bhiwandi East, Kalyan West and Murbad. There are several burning issues in the constituency such as the bad state of roads including the Bhiwandi bypass stretch on the Mumbai Nashik highway; scores of illegal godowns in Bhiwandi; disciplinary action by Torrent which distributes power to Bhiwandi city; and water crisis in the Shahapur area.

“There is strong anti-incumbency against Kapil Patil in some areas of Bhiwandi,” said

a political observer. “Mhatre has support in many in rural areas of the constituency, while Patil has a strong base in urban areas like Kalyan and Badlapur. He also enjoys the support of hardcore Hindutvawadis in Bhiwandi city. One has to see whose votes Nilesh Sambre of Jijau Sanstha takes,” he said.

Patil appears unfazed by the anti-incumbency factor. He told reporters that he had a lot of support among people and did not believe in prepoll surveys which predicted that his seat was in danger. BJP district chief Madhukar Mohave too claimed that they were much ahead in the campaign and would win the seat.

Mhatre, on the other hand, has the support of the INDIA bloc, including the Samajwadi Party, which has significant presence in the constituency. Rais Shaikh, Samajwadi Party MLA from Bhiwandi, said, “Muslims and Dalits are strongly behind the INDIA bloc. AIMIM has also sensed it. Plus, there is Mhatre’s social work in the area.”

Mhatre is also being helped by a suspended BJP functionary in Murbad. Speaking to HT, he said that if elected, he would solve the water problem in Bhiwandi in the next five years. He also promised to solve the problem of illegal godowns by getting them legalised and seeking more floor space index from the state.

“We have a good symbol (man playing a turaha). It has reached people in the cities very fast, via social media, while in the rural areas, our workers are taking it to people,” said Mhatre. “But another independent candidate has been allotted the turaha symbol to create confusion in the mind of voters.”