Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The Lok Sabha election process in Aurangabad Constituency has arrived in the last leg. The candidates are leaving no stone unturned to impress the voters by visiting potential villages and tehsils during their campaigning. Briefly speaking, there are 37 candidates in the fray, but the triangular fight is mainly between Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate Chandrakant Khaire, Mahayuti candidate Sandeepan Bhumre, and AIMIM candidate Imtiaz Jaleel. There are also known faces in the fray who are also trying their luck either as independent candidates or party candidates like Harshawardhan Jadhav (Ind), Afsar Khan (Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi), Sanjay Jagtap (BSP), etc.
Meanwhile, it has been observed that the voters are in a state of confusion at the ground level due to the equal competency of the three major candidates. Khaire has been MP four times; Bhumre is the state’s guardian minister and close aide of the chief minister Eknath Shinde; and Imtiaz is a sitting MP. While talking in private the electors fear the independents may pose a danger to these three candidates due to the division of votes based on emotions.
Hence the newspaper spoke to a few citizens to know what qualities (like his caste, qualification, personality, able leadership, etc) they were searching for in the new MP and why.
A first-time voter and student Abdul Raheman (19) said, “ I am enthusiastic to cast my vote as it is for the first time in my life. I want my new MP who strive to provide educational and job opportunities, attract industries to overcome the backlog of jobs, and help boost our tourism across the globe and all over India. In brief, he should be an able brand ambassador of our historic city.”
Adds an educational consultant Amit Janve (47), “ Our society is classified into three tiers. Hence, he should be aware of the problems of people at a lower level, middle level, and higher level. There are ample issues at each level that need to be resolved or redressed on priority with the help of the Central Government and the State Government. Hence our new MP should bear influential leadership qualities and represent our district ably in the parliament.”
A retired cooperative personnel Abhay G. Dongre (72) mentioned, “ It is a tragedy that the development of our district has not been done as was expected since the inception of the state. We are still deprived of adequate numbers of industries from electronics, food processing, pharmaceutical, and automobile sectors. Hence I will be casting my vote for an influential candidate and able leader who would resolve the issues of youths and elders, promote sports, and maintain peace and harmony in the district.”