Known for its famous Sai Baba temple, the Shirdi Lok Sabha constituency falls within Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.
Though the saffron camp may appear to have the sea tin the bag, however, BJP and Shiv Sena are not really viewed as an alliance on the ground. And candidates over the last two Lok Sabha polls have moved fluidly between Congress, Shiv Sena and the BJP.
Shirdi elected Shiv Sena candidate Sadashiv Lokhande in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He has been elected to the assembly thrice on a BJP ticket. He began his career in politics in 1995, winning the Karjat assembly seat and till 2004, was a BJP MLA.
In 2014, he joined the Sena, fought the parliamentary elections and won by a high margin from Shirdi, defeating Bhausaheb Wakchaure, who at the time, was fighting on a Congress ticket.
In 2009, the Shirdi LS seat was won by Wakchaure, who was then with the Shiv Sena. He defeated Ramdas Athawale of the RPI (A).
Largely categorised as a rural belt, Shirdi’s six Assembly segments are distributed across party lines. Kopargaon and Newasa are held by BJP; Akole by the NCP; Sangamner, Shrirampur and Shirdi are with the Congress.
With Shirdi a reserved seat for scheduled tribes (ST), both Shiv Sena and Congress have a limited choice of candidates here.
{{/usCountry}}With Shirdi a reserved seat for scheduled tribes (ST), both Shiv Sena and Congress have a limited choice of candidates here.
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While Sena is likely to re-nominate sitting MP Lokhande, political observers believe that Sujay Vikhe-Patil’s entry into the BJP will change political equations in the district. The constituency has a number of educational institutes set up in Sangamner and Loni-Pravara, that have been nurtured by the late politicians Bhausaheb Thorat and Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil, both from the Congress. The co-operative dairy network in the region also exerts some influence on voters. Between 1952 and 2008, Shirdi constituency was known as Kopargaon.
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