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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Leopard attacks, bullock cart races, Koregaon violence issues in Shirur seat
Shirur has India’s fastest growing industrial areas, Chakan and Ranjangaon, home to at least 1,000 known, large and small scale companies. It falls under Pune district and will vote in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 on April 29.
When manufacturing units of Daimler Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover, General Electric, Fiat, LG and Whirlpool sit in your Lok Sabha constituency, the seat takes on a corporate tinge that suggests “high impact”.
Maharashtra’s Shirur Lok Sabha constituency is, however, a high-wire, trapeze walk for candidates, with the mega-corps on one side and a highly strung rural core on the other - cue, bullock cart racing, leopard attacks and violence in the aftermath of the Koregaon Bhima riots.
Shirur has India’s fastest growing industrial areas, Chakan and Ranjangaon, home to at least 1,000 known, large and small scale companies.
It falls under Pune district and will vote in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 on April 29.
Shiv Sena candidate Shivaji Adhalrao has won from here three times in a row and will contest this time against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Amol Kolhe, the TV serial actor popular for his role as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Both the candidates have a large number of followers and the constituency is expected to be a close fight.
Despite the Koregaon Bhima violence spreading fast to Chakan and affecting the multinationals based there, it is the issue of the bullock cart races that voters on the ground prefer to cite as an example of where political will is needed.
The races are popular in this constituency, but are currently banned by the courts.
Sangram Sandhbhor, a voter from Chakan says ,“As the location of the airport ( now Purandhar international) moved out of our area, the demand for properties has come down. Earlier, Chakan was a hot property, but all of a sudden, demand has come down. Even the sitting MP has failed to restart the bullock cart races.” Dhanjay Alhat, another voter adds, “People are making an issue about the bullock cart races, but it is Adhalrao who is fighting to get it restarted.”
Ambegaon and Junnar talukas, also under Shirur, are considered remote and leopard attacks are a problem for villagers. In 2018, 90 people died in leopard attacks in the area and that cost the state government ~4 crore in compensation payouts.
Shirur is no stranger to the tragic and controversial. In July 2014, a landside in the village of Malin in Ambegaon taluka killed 151 people. Women voters, however, prefer to focus on development. Rujuta Wabale, a voter from Shirur, says, “We are listing the issues we want sorted out; airport, Pune-Nashik railway line and Pune-Nashik highway expansion. For several years nothing has happened.”
Sapna Kulkarni, a voter from Hadapsar, which falls under Shirur, says, “We have never seen our MP. Water and road connectivity is what matters in Hadapsar.”
