Maval battle to crown real Sena

Maval/Pune: Around 15 years ago when Maval constituency was carved out during the delimitation, the then undivided Shiv Sena staked its claim over the seat in the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With urban and rural voters, Sena won the 2009 polls and continued its winning streak till 2019 in Maval, which will go to poll on May 13.

This time there are two Shiv Senas – one led by Eknath Shinde which has fielded Shrirang Barne and another by Uddhav Thackeray, whose candidate is Sanjog Waghere.

The battle between these two candidates is not just to become Member of Parliament but also to check on whose side the voters of this constituency are and which among the two they think is the real Shiv Sena.

The sitting MP Barne, who has sided with CM Shinde is eyeing a third term. Pitted against him in a direct fight is the Uddhav Thackeray-led group’s Sanjog Waghere, a first-timer and former mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad. Waghere, who was with Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), joined Sena (UBT) in December last year on assurance of getting an LS ticket.

The constituency comprises six assemblies, with three falling under Pune district (Pimpri, Chinchwad, and Maval) and the remaining (Uran, Panvel, and Karjat) under Raigad district.

Sanjog Waghere. (HT)

Barne, who is backed by Mahayuti, may benefit from three assembly pockets from the Raigad district — Panvel, represented by Prashant Thakur of BJP; Uran, held by independent Mahesh Baldi who is a BJP supporter; and Karjat, held by Shiv Sena’s Mahesh Thorve. The remaining three assembly constituencies in the Pune district are Maval, represented by MLA Sunil Shelke of NCP, Chinchwad held by BJP’s Ashwini Jagtap, and Pimpri, held by Anna Bansode of NCP.

In the 2019 general elections, the then undivided NCP fielded Ajit Pawar’s son Parth against Barne but he got a drubbing. After Ajit-led NCP joined the Mahayuti alliance, he extended support to Barne. Pawar had also directed his party workers to campaign for Barne and forget the past differences when he was talking about avenging his son’s defeat. However, local workers of the Mahayuti alliance in the past had also opposed Barne’s candidature claiming he had not implemented any development projects in Maval in his two terms.

The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is also likely to play a key role as its candidate received 75,904 votes in the 2019 elections. Prakash Ambedkar’s party has fielded Madhavi Joshi this time.

In Pune district, shifting of some companies from Industrial hubs like Talegaon, Talwade, Urse and Takwe Budruk amongst others is the cause of concern for the young voters.

“There is a need for more such companies and priority for jobs should be given to locals. However, no mega projects have been brought in these industrial units during the tenure of Barne,” said a local.

The proposed MIDC project in Maval is stuck due to environmental clearance. The roads connecting the villages of Maval and the highway are in bad shape and narrow leading to traffic congestion.

In Raigad district, problems like water, electricity; rising air and water pollution in Panvel, Uran and Karjat are the main issues. The pollution has become a major problem given the uncontrolled construction and industrial activities. Citizens here demand green power, green transport and pollution-free waste disposal systems in place to combat the problem.

Snehal Patil, a Maval resident, said that traffic is a serious problem in the area with narrow roads leading to daily chaos and arguments during the traffic congestion. “There is a need to strengthen the public transport, especially the railway and improve their connectivity. Large number of people from Pune and Raigad depend on the railways for public transport,” she said.

Dattatraya Deshmukh, Wakad resident, said that water shortage is the major problem in Wakad and adjoining areas with large number of societies depending on water tankers. Significant projects like the Pavana pipeline project have been stalled in 2011.

“The project will help citizens in Pimpri-Chinchwad an additional 100 MLD of water, but no candidate is speaking about it. If the candidate speaks in support of this project, they would lose votes in Maval and if they speak in opposition to the project they lose votes from PCMC area,” he said.

Waghere said that the Maval Lok Sabha constituency for long has been loyal to the Shiv Sena party and the voters here have voted for the undivided Shiv Sena and not the candidate. “People are unhappy after the Shiv Sena party was split because of dirty politics and they stand by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena. Even if at the assembly level the opposition has Mahayuti alliance party representatives, the citizens from the constituency are with the Shiv Sena (UBT). The voters have full support, sympathy and emotional connection with the Shiv Sena (UBT). There are several pending developments works in the constituency and the MVA will fulfil it and make the constituency an ideal constituency,” he said.

Barne said, “There has been a lot of developmental work done by PM Modi across the country with Maval also benefitting out of it. “I am requesting voters to vote on the development work done in the constituency,” he said.

He said there are several new projects that have been approved by the government and new industrial units will come up in Talawade and adjoining industrial areas. “Several roads in Maval will be developed under various approved projects by the central government, PMRDA and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). In the past ten years, I have been meeting people in Raigad district regularly and there is a problem of pollution and water. It will be solved soon in these areas on priority,” he said.

Abhay Deshpande, political observer, said that in Maval Lok Sabha constituency the Mahayuti candidates seems to have an upper hand as the election this year in Maval is not high profile like last year.

“The opposition candidate of MVA is also new in the general elections. The NCP joining Mahayuti and BJP assembly members will help Barne, who also has a good network in the constituency. There are no strong issues that can help Waghere to overturn the poll. The sympathy factor and farmer issues which are helpful to MVA candidates in other constituencies won’t be that helpful to the candidate in the Maval constituency.”

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