The Lok Sabha election for Ahmednagar seat in central Maharashtra is seeing an old rivalry between Sharad Pawar and the Vikhe Patil family playing out.
The constituency, which goes to polls on Tuesday, will witness a fight between senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's son Sujay, who is contesting on a BJP ticket, and NCP's Sangram Jagtap.
To the embarrassment of the Congress, an ally of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil is campaigning for his son.
The Vikhe Patil Junior joined the BJP last month following the Sharad Pawar-led NCP's refusal to give up the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat.
The NCP has lost the contest from the seat to the BJP in the past three elections, yet Pawar refused to cede it to the Congress, citing his old rivalry with Sujay Vikhe Patil's late grandfather and former Union minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil.
Sujay Vikhe Patil, a neurosurgeon, is also the great-grandson of late Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil, who started Asia's first sugar cooperative.
The BJP dropped three-time MP Dilip Gandhi to field the Vikhe Patil scion. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis described the decision as a "surgical strike" on the Congress.
Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil is overseeing the campaign of his son and not campaigning for any Congress candidate.
Pawar has made it a prestige battle, addressing five rallies so far in support of Jagtap, son of NCP MLC Arun Jagtap and son-in-law of BJP's Rahuri MLA Shivajirao Kardile.
Sujay Vikhe Patil appears to have the upper hand in the contest, given his family's legacy and its network of educational institutions and sugar co-operatives in the district.
However, around 2.5 lakh Muslim voters in Ahmednagar have been the traditional supporters of the Congress and the NCP.
It will also have to be seen if 1.7 lakh Jain voters, who have supported Gandhi, will vote for Sujay Vikhe Patil.
Political equations of his family with other leaders in the district might further complicate things for Sujay Vikhe Patil.
Besides Kardile, Jagtap is expected to get support from BJP's Shevgaon-Pathardi MLA Monika Rajale. She is the wife of Rajiv Rajale, nephew of Congress leader and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's old rival Balasaheb Thorat.
In 2014, Rajiv Rajale fought on NCP ticket and lost to Gandhi. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had campaigned against the former then.
A Congress leader who did not want to be named said a highlight of Ahmednagar politics is that political stalwarts across party lines join hands to defeat someone.
"Thorat, Kardile, Gadakh families may not have come together for Jagtap, but are unanimous in opposing Vikhe Patil," he said.
Balasaheb Vikhe Patil had rebelled against the Congress and fought as an independent candidate in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls. He lost to the Congress's Yashwantrao Gadakh, who had Pawar's backing.
Balasaheb Vikhe Patil moved the high court accusing Gadakh and Pawar of electoral malpractice and maligning his image. The court suspended the contesting rights of Pawar and Gadakh.
Later, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling for Pawar.
If Sujay wins, the Congress-NCP alliance may come under strain. The NCP has been demanding that the Congress acts against Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.
However, it is not easy for the Congress to axe him as it would mean a reduction in its strength in the assembly and ceding the post of Leader of Opposition to the NCP. The Congress has 42 and the NCP has 41 MLAs in the House.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
