Nagpur/Akola: Shiv Sena (Shinde) nominated two candidates in Vidarbha, including party veteran and five-time MP Bhavana Gawali from Risod. Currently an MLC, Gawali was unhappy about not getting the 2024 Lok Sabha ticket for her long-held bastion Yavatmal-Washim, which her party eventually lost to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena. The second nomination was for Ballarpur, where the party named Baliram Siraskar.
Both constituencies are unique and crucial for Shiv Sena (Shinde) because it’s more about prestige rather than just increasing the seat count.
Ballarpur is a personal issue for the Shinde camp because sitting MLA Nitin Deshmukh (Sena UBT) was the only legislator who returned from Guwahati after the party split. In fact, Deshmukh created a ruckus in Guwahati and demanded that he be sent back as he wished to remain with Uddhav Thackeray only. When nothing worked, the Shinde faction chartered a plane that flew him to Nagpur, from where he went back to Akola by road. Hence, for the Shinde faction, defeating Deshmukh in this poll is a prestige issue.
The party’s candidate, Siraskar, started his political career with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). Siraskar won this seat for VBA in 2009 and 2014. After VBA denied him an assembly ticket in 2019, Siraskar joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) before switching to the BJP in 2022. Recently, he shifted to Shiv Sena Shinde after being promised the ticket for Balapur.
For Gawali, currently an MLC, it’s a return to electoral politics. While she held an enviable electoral track record as MP, her nomination for the Risod assembly constituency will be no easy task, as for the last three terms, the Congress has held on to it despite multiple waves. It will be a matter of political survival for Gawali because if she loses, she risks being politically irrelevant, even though the safety net of being an MLC will still be there.
Both constituencies are unique and crucial for Shiv Sena (Shinde) because it’s more about prestige rather than just increasing the seat count.
Ballarpur is a personal issue for the Shinde camp because sitting MLA Nitin Deshmukh (Sena UBT) was the only legislator who returned from Guwahati after the party split. In fact, Deshmukh created a ruckus in Guwahati and demanded that he be sent back as he wished to remain with Uddhav Thackeray only. When nothing worked, the Shinde faction chartered a plane that flew him to Nagpur, from where he went back to Akola by road. Hence, for the Shinde faction, defeating Deshmukh in this poll is a prestige issue.
The party’s candidate, Siraskar, started his political career with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). Siraskar won this seat for VBA in 2009 and 2014. After VBA denied him an assembly ticket in 2019, Siraskar joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) before switching to the BJP in 2022. Recently, he shifted to Shiv Sena Shinde after being promised the ticket for Balapur.
For Gawali, currently an MLC, it’s a return to electoral politics. While she held an enviable electoral track record as MP, her nomination for the Risod assembly constituency will be no easy task, as for the last three terms, the Congress has held on to it despite multiple waves. It will be a matter of political survival for Gawali because if she loses, she risks being politically irrelevant, even though the safety net of being an MLC will still be there.
