MUMBAI: The contest in Maharashtra’s Beed Lok Sabha constituency, the bastion of the Munde family, is all set to go down to the wire on May 13 as a confluence of factors is threatening to upset conservative electoral calculations.
Beed has been represented by the Munde family since 2009. This time, the BJP has denied ticket to sitting MP Pritam Munde, daughter of late popular leader Gopinath Munde, and instead fielded her sister Pankaja Munde, who is facing tough challenge from Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP)’s candidate Bajrang Sonwane.
Pankaja was a minister in BJP-led government in Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019, but she lost the 2019 assembly elections to her cousin Dhananjay Munde, who is now a minister in the NCP (Ajit Pawar) government in Maharashtra. Interestingly, Dhananjay is Pankaja’s star campaigner in 2024.
As for Sonwane, he had contested the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019 but lost to Pritam Munde by over 1.5 lakh votes. He is trying his luck for the second time but is hopeful that he has better chances as the Maratha quota issue is fast emerging as a major deciding factor in the polls.
The Maratha voters are said to be backing Sonwane while Pankaja has a better connect with the OBCs.
“Maratha voters’ polarisation was always an issue but the fragmented polarization mainly helped Munde family. Because it triggered a reverse polarisation of OBC communities against Maratha candidates. Maratha as a big community never gets 100 % consolidation like other smaller communities of OBC. The fragmented and divided Marathas helped Munde family to win the seat in 2009, 2014 and 2014 Lok Sabha election. But in 2024, the scenario is different. Due to Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil’s agitation, Maratha voters of the Marathawada region including Beed are against incumbent government and are rallying behind the NCP(SP) candidate,” said a local journalist from Beed.
Expressing similar views, a political observer said the challenges before Pankaja are formidable.
“Even MLAs belonging to the Maratha community are barred from entering the villages for their perceived failure to bring in reservations for the Maratha community. This time, it’s a really complex and tough battle where local issues play a much bigger role than the Hindu-Muslim binary and other issues like the Ram temple,” he said.