By Mehboob Inamdar
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Sharad Pawar fielded only one candidate at a Constituency in the district for the ensuing Assembly elections.
Aurangabad district has nine Assembly Constituencies. MLC Satish Chavan was given a ticket to contest the election in the Gangapur-Khuldabad Constituency as an NCP candidate. He also has the support of the constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi (VBA). His arch rival in the Constituency is sitting BJP MLA and Mahayuti MLA Prashant Bamb.
Satish Chavan is the MLC of Marathwada Gradaute Constituency. He was elected to MLC third in 2020. He has good experience in Graduate Constituency elections which is considered very complicated and difficult to Assembly election. Prashant Bamb is a sitting MLA from Gangapur-Khuldabad Constituency. He was elected an MLA for the third time in 2019. Ekanth Shinde Sena, BJP, Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT)-Sena, Congress, NCP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) are contesting in nine Assembly Constituencies of the district. However, NCP-Sharad Pawar has fielded a candidate in only one Constituency, that is, Gangapur-Khuldabad in the form of MLC Chavan.
When there was a split in NCP, it divided into two factions. One is led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar while another by Sharad Pawar. Chavan was in NCP-AjitPawar.
He recently joined NCP-Sharad Pawar and succeeded in getting a ticket from this Constituency. Chavan has also the support of partners of Maha Vikas Aghadi. Top leaders from the NCP-Sharad Pawar are likely to visit the district for the campaigning. MLC Chavan started working in the Constituency for several years ago to contest election from here.
Prashant Bamb won the Assembly election as an Independent in 2009, as a BJP candidate in 2014 and 2019. He secured over 1.7 lakh votes in the last election. He defeated NCP candidate Mane Patil Santosh Annasaheb with a margin of 34,971 votes in 2019. The Constituency has 3.64 lakh voters for this election. Meanwhile, according to sources agitation of Manjo Jarange for the Maratha reservation may help him in the elections.