David Vs Goliath
NEW DELHI : The year was 1967. A flamboyant socialist youth in South Bombai and the Samyukt Socialist Party candidate, George Fernandes, defeated Congress’ all powerful SK Patil in the Lok Sabha elections, after which the term ‘giant-killer’ gained currency in the elections parlance. Since then, each election in India has seen giant-killers — lesser known candidates defeating well-entrenched competitors. In 2024 too, there are seemingly weak candidates set to take on bigwigs.
Vikas Thakre, the incumbent Congress MLA from Nagpur city, has been entrusted with the herculean task of taking on cabinet minister and BJP stalwart Nitin Gadkari in the crucial Nagpur parliamentary seat. By nominating Thakre, who has also served as the mayor of the town, the Congress is hoping to wrest the Lok Sabha seat, which has traditionally been its stronghold despite being the home city of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the BJP. Gadkari had clinched the seat by defeating Congress veteran Congress Vilas Muttemwar in 2014.
A similar ‘David versus Goliath’ contest is being played out in Berhampore, where the TMC has fielded former cricketer and a political greenhorn, Yusuf Pathan, against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five-time MP and veteran in West Bengal politics. The daughter of RJD chief Rohini Acharya is also sailing in the same boat, fielded against sitting BJP MP and ex-Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Saran. Interestingly, Rudy beat her mother in the same seat in 2014.
