Agrawal vs Agrawal likely in Gondia

 

 

Political activities have picked up momentum after the announcement of State Assembly elections scheduled on November 20. Sitting MLA Vinod Agrawal’s name from Gondia was declared in the first list of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He will represent Mahayuti. In Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), their leaders were found engaged in resolving the intra-alliance differences as Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), both were making strong claims over the seat. Reportedly, they both don’t want to leave the seat. From Congress, the name of three time MLA Gopaldas Agrawal is on the top whereas from Shiv Sena (UBT), the name of two time MLA Rameshkumar Kuthe is highly discussed. Before this election, Vinod Agrawal and Gopaldas Agrawal had faced each other in 2014 and 2019 elections where Gopaldas Agrawal had won the 2014 election by margin of 10,758 votes. Settling the score in 2019 polls, Vinod Agrawal outsted the three time MLA Gopaldas Agrawal by the highest margin of 27,169 votes.

 

It may be noted that in 2014 election, all the four major political parties BJP, Congress, NCP and SS had contested alone and in 2019 they formed an alliance- Congress-NCP and BJP-SS. But this time, after the division in SS and NCP, Mahayuti alliance of BJP-SS (Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar) came into existence and this alliance is up against the strong Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of Cong-NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and SS (UBT). There were 19 and 18 candidates in the fray respectively in the 2014 and 2019 elections. Sitting MLA Vinod Agrawal, who had fought the election as an Independent candidate as he was denied party ticket.

 

He was the first independent candidate to emerge victorious from Gondia seat beating the three time Congress MLA Gopaldas Agrawal. Gopaldas Agrawal had fought on the BJP ticket after he had deserted the Congress party just ahead of nominations in 2019. Vinod Agrawal had also become the first candidate to garner over 1 lakh votes. He polled 1,02,996 votes against Gopaldas Agrawal’s 75,827 votes. Amar Warade, who contested as Congress-NCP candidate, had lost the deposit, after he managed just 8,938 votes. This time again the fight is more likely between the two Agrawals. While the BJP has announced Vinod Agrawal as the officials candidate for Mahayuti, the name of MVA candidate is also likely to be cleared in a day or two. If the seat goes in Congress quota, it is certain that MLA Gopaldas Agrawal will get the ticket. He has recently returned to the Congress fold. If the seat goes in SS (UBT) quota, the name of former MLA Rameshkumar Kuthe is expected to be in fray.

 

Kuthe had earlier joined the BJP. Kuthe hails from a strong OBC community which has a decisive number of voters in the constituency. Both the Agrawals represent the minorities. MLA Vinod Agrawal is banking on the works he has performed in his first regime as a legislator. Besides, the support of NCP stalwart MP Praful Patel and believe to garner support of women voters following the Mukhyamantri Laadli Bahen Yojana. The three time former MLA Gopaldas Agrawal is confident to get the chance over anti-incumbency factor and in his campaign is targeting the works of MLA Vinod Agrawal. He is also confident that the magic of MPCC President Nana Patole will again work for him like that of Lok Sabha election. SS’ Rameshkumar Kuthe is also hopeful of getting the chance. He has represented the constituency twice in 1995 and in 1999 as the Shiv Sena legislator. Issues like unemployment, under development of Gondia City, recession, non-industrialisation, etc are also likely to affect the polling. There were 3,24,080 registered voters in the constituency including 1,57,406 men and 1,66,665 women. Gondia is always considered as a strong bastion for the Congress party. In the last 14 elections, Congress candidates have won for 11 terms, Shiv Sena candidate won twice and in 2019 Vinod Agrawal had emerged the winner as an Independent.