Balapur: Tough Fight Between Nitin Deshmukh, Baliram Sirskar
In the Balapur constituency, Shiv Sena (UBT) re-nominated sitting MLA Nitin Deshmukh (Tale). He serves as the Akola District President of Shiv Sena. Deshmukh is fielded against Baliram Sirskar, who will be contesting the Shiv Sena (Shinde) nomination.
In the last Assembly election in Maharashtra, held in October 2019, Deshmukh secured victory with 69,343 votes. He defeated Dhairyavardhan Pundkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) with a margin of 18,788 votes. Pundalkar garnered 50,555 votes, while Dr Rahman Khan Haji Kale Khan of All India Majlis-e-ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) came third with 44,507 votes.
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Last month, as election preparations were carrying on, Deshmukh made a controversial allegation that there was a conspiracy to kill him when the Uddhav Thackeray government collapsed and a political crisis was looming over the split in the Shiv Sena.
He stated that he was forcefully admitted to a Surat hospital under the false pretense of him ailing from a heart attack. A BJP MLA informed him that the former received directives from Delhi “to detain him at all costs, even suggesting that he be killed if necessary,” the Times of India reports, as he is saying. “The directive was clear — end the game by any means necessary,” He added.
Deshmukh further revealed that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has begun investigations against him and even his children. “My son and my daughter, who is in 8th grade, are now also under scrutiny as part of this investigation,” TOI reports, as Deshmukh is saying.
During the Shiv Sena survival crisis in 2022, Deshmukh’s disappearance gained attention, and there were assumptions that he had joined the rebel Shinde Sena grouping. Later, he resurfaced, extending support to Thackeray and stating that he was ‘kidnapped’ and taken to Gujarat’s Surat, from where he escaped. His wife had filed a missing person’s complaint at the Civil Lines police station in Akola, doubting the threat to his life.
A political adjustment has been made in the Mahayuti alliance because even though the constituency has been left for the Shiv Sena, the BJP has fielded the candidate.
Baliram Sirskar is a two-term MLA from Balapur. In the 2009 Assembly polls, he won the seat as an independent MLA with the support of Bharip-Bamsam. He secured 39581 votes, while Congress candidate Khateeb Rajaya Begum Natiquoddin came in second with 37,991 votes. In the 2014 polls, Sirskar retained the seat on a Bharip Bahujan Mahasanghan ticket. He defeated Congress candidate Khatib Syed Natiquddin by a margin of 1590 votes.
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In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sirskar contested unsuccessfully on a Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi ticket. After his failure, he failed to secure a ticket for Balapur. Then he quit Vanchit and joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP); two years ago, he left the NCP and joined the BJP. On receiving nomination from the Shinde Sena faction, Sirskar is contesting from Balapur.
Balapur constituency is located in Akola district, Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23.
