Constituency Watch: BJP aims for hat-trick in the den of Reds and tigers in Maha’s Gadchiroli-Chimur

Gadchiroli-Chimur (Maharashtra): A hotbed of Maoist-infested belts and the tiger territories of central India, the reserved Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) constituency came into being after the delimitation exercise of 2008 and is going for its 4th election this year.

As the new Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) seat which saw its maiden LS polls in 2009, the Congress’ Marotrao S. Kawase, a former 3-time MLA and ex-minister in the state government, was elected with a huge margin.

However, all was washed away in the BJP wave of 2014 led by Narendra Modi and Kawase was defeated by BJP’s Ashok Nete, who repeated the feat with ease in 2019 and is now targeting a third consecutive win.

Nete will lock horns for his hat-trick with the Maha Vikas Aghadi-INDIA bloc’s Congress nominee Namdev D. Krisan and Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA)’s Hitesh P. Madavi, plus, the Haryana-based Akhil Bharatiya Bhim Sena (ABBS) in the April 19, Lok Sabha elections.

Given various factors that might play out, besides anti-incumbency, in the constituency, plus the Congress and VBA’s support boroughs, Nete is unlikely to experience a cake-walk for his third attempt in the seat via Gadchiroli-Chimur.

In 2019, Nete bagged 5.19 lakh votes against Congress’ Namdeo Usendi who got 4.42 lakh ballots, but a huge chunk was bagged by the ‘vote-splitters’ — VBA’s Ramesh Gajabe plus BSP’s H.S. Mangam, securing 1.11 lakh votes and 28,000 votes respectively.

This time also, the two main rivals and other parties plus one more (ABBS), are present with their ‘vote-cutting knives’ that could slash either way.

Before the delimitation, from 1967 onwards, the seat was won five times by the Congress, four times by the Bharatiya Janata Party and once by the People’s Republican Party of India (PRPI).

In its previous ‘avatar’ as part of various neighbouring seats, the most prominent personality elected from the region was Vilas B. Muttemwar, a 7-time MP who worked twice as a Union Minister under ex-PMs P. V. Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh, besides the PRPI President Prof. Jogendra L. Kawade.

The Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) LS seat is made up of six Assembly segments of which three are held by the BJP, two by Congress, including the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and one by Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

They include Chimur (BJP, MLA Bunty Bhangdiya), Armori (ST) (BJP, MLA Krishna Gajbe), Gadchiroli (ST) (BJP, MLA Deorao Holi), Aheri (ST) (NCP, MLA Dharamraobaba Atram), Amgaon (ST) (Congress, MLA Sahasram Korote), and Brahmapuri (Congress, MLA and Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar).

Notorious for the Reds menace, Gadchiroli came into prominence last year when teakwood of supreme quality from the district and adjoining Chandrapur was sent for the construction of the Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Chimur is famed for its annual 249-year-old Ghoda Yatra held in January – February, at least two major tiger sanctuaries, jungle safaris and resorts, and other attractions.

The village of Chimur blazed into history and national limelight in August 1942 when it was among the first ones to respond to Mahatma Gandhi’s historic ‘Quit India Movement’ from Bombay (Mumbai), and the people then suffered hugely at the hands of the British rulers.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)

–IANS