BELAGAVI: The role of the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) is likely to be crucial in the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency by siphoning off the votes of the Marathi community. As the Marathi voters here have traditionally been BJP supporters, this could impact the prospects of the saffron party.
In the last bypoll held for the Belagavi Lok Sabha seat in 2021, about 1.16 lakh votes bagged by MES candidate Shubham Shelke nearly cost the BJP as Managala Angadi (sitting MP) was able to scrape through merely by about 4000 votes against Satish Jarkiholi of the Congress.
Senior Marathi journalist Sanjay Suryavanshi says the MES may jeopardise the chances of BJP candidate Jagadish Shettar.
"If the MES fields a popular leader like Ramakant Konduskar or Shubham Shelke, the BJP will land in trouble surely. But the Marathi voters will certainly rally behind Shettar strongly if the Samiti fields a lesser known leader," he adds.
However, BJP leaders are confident that Shettar will win by a large margin of votes irrespective of which candidate is fielded against him.
According to sources, the MES leadership formed a committee of 32 members on Tuesday in Belagavi to finalise its candidate for the seat. On the first day itself, Sadhana Patil, daughter-in-law of former mayor late Sambhaji Patil, filed her application. Many other aspirants are expected to file applications before the MES takes a final call on its candidate.