Tough Fight Between Chhagan Bhujbal, Manikrao Shinde In Yeola

Nashik, Maharashtra: In October, a day after negating the possibility of contesting from Yeola, senior NCP (Ajit Pawar) leader Chhagan Bhujbal said he changed the decision due to insurmountable pressures from supporters and party leaders. Yeola constituency is his home turf and he has been representing the constituency since 2004. However, this time, he is posing a tough challenge through the candidacy of his former friend and NCP (SP) candidate Manikrao Shinde and stiff opposition from Marathas due to his aggressive stance against their reservation demand.

In the 2019 election, Bhujbal won the seat, defeating Shiv Sena’s Sambhaji Pawar. Bhujbal secured 1,26,237 votes, while Pawar garnered 69,712 votes. In the previous 2014 election, Bhujbal won the seat by defeating Pawar by a margin of 46,442 votes.

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Bhujbal, who belongs to the Mali OBC community, started as a vegetable vendor in Mumbai’s Byculla. He joined the Shiv Sena in the 1960s. Bhujbal made his electoral success as Mayor of Mumbai, and his debut assembly poll win from Mazgaon was in 1985 and again in 1990. In 1991, he joined Congress, and in 1995, Sharad Pawar, who became Bhujbal’s new mentor, made him the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council. He has also served as Cabinet Minister and Deputy Chief Minister in successive governments. When NCP split last year, Bhujbal joined the Ajit Pawar group, giving a massive blow to his mentor Sharad Pawar. He is currently a minister in the Mahayuti government.

Once close associates, Pawar and Bhujbal turn bitter rivals, and it makes the assembly polls a prestige battle. For that, Sharad Pawar’s party has fielded Shinde, who had assisted Bhujbal in his win on the Congress ticket in the 2004 assembly elections. Shinde, a Maratha, hopes to consolidate the community votes who are displeased with Bhujbal. After submitting his nomination, Shinde said in his speech that the present Yevla assembly election is to hold Bhujbal accountable for deceiving Sharad Pawar. During the election campaigns, Pawar made emotional appeal to voters and requested voters to defeat Bhujbal, whom he referred as a “betrayer”.

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The Yevla assembly segment is located in Nashik district in north Maharashtra. Aside from Shinde and Bhujbal, other aspirants for the seat are Kunal Darade, the son of former UBT MLC Narendra Darade and former chairman of Lasalgaon APMC Jaydatta Holkar.

The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23. The Assembly elections mark first one in the state after Shiv Sena and  NCP split in 2022, and 2023 respectively.