Solapur: The fight for the Solapur Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra is between two sitting MLAs who are trying their fortunes for the first time in parliamentary politics.
Congress candidate and former Maharashtra chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde's daughter Praniti Shinde is a three-time MLA from the Solapur City Central assembly constituency while BJP nominee Ram Satpute represents the Malshiras assembly segment.
Praniti is the third member of the Shinde family who is contesting the election from the Solapur Lok Sabha seat. Her father represented this constituency thrice - in 1998, 1999, and 2009, but he could not win the election in 2014 and 2019. In 2004, her mother Ujwala Shinde contested the seat unsuccessfully.
Historically, the Solapur seat has been a stronghold of the Congress, but the party lost its seat in 2014 and again in 2019. It is currently represented by Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya Swami of the BJP. In 2014, it was represented by another party leader Sharad Bansode.
Polling for this seat will be held in the third phase on May 7.
Solapur district is located close to the Karnataka border. It is famous for "Solapuri chaddar", its cotton blankets. It is also known for the handloom and power loom industry and leads the state in the manufacturing of beedis, hand-rolled cigarettes wrapped in tendu leaves.
One of the biggest issues that haunts the district is a shortage of water, with locals saying that they get water once in six to seven days. Another matter of concern is unemployment with the locals saying that industrial development was missing in the region.
Rahul Gaikwad of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar, son of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, withdrew from the poll race on the final day of withdrawal of nomination forms. The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) did not field a candidate this time even as it had received a significant number of votes in the last election. The VBA has now supported independent candidate Atish Bansode.
Praniti Shinde, who is fighting her maiden Lok Sabha election, said, "Solapur is a big constituency with a different set of problems. I have tried to cover each assembly constituency here by going there and understanding the problems faced by the people to see how they suffered under the BJP rule."
On the Congress's allegation that the BJP was ignoring the issue of water scarcity in Solapur, Satpute said, "It is just Congress' narrative. I want the residents of Solapur to know that a water scheme worth Rs 650 crore of a parallel pipeline has been planned by the Centre to bring water from the Ujani dam to Solapur. The work is underway and in the coming five months, the water woes will be resolved."
"In the nearby Akkalkot region, water was made available for irrigation purposes by the Modi government, but for 40 years, Congress did not do anything," he alleged.
Satpute expressed confidence that the BJP will retain power for the third time in the constituency.
"Her (Praniti's) father (Sushilkumar Shinde) faced defeat in Lok Sabha polls from here twice. Our party leader Subash Deshmukh defeated her mother (Ujwala Shinde). This is the fourth time that Congress gave a ticket to a member of the same family because they didn't find any other party worker. She will also be defeated now. The Solapur voter is intelligent and will choose BJP," he said.
The handloom and powerloom weaving industry employs a large number of workers. There are 115 units of 29 various beedi factories and there are about 70,000 women who are involved in the beedi-making process, while the number of factory workers is 1,725 in the district, according to official figures.
One of the issues faced by the women who make the beedis at home is that since 2016, the wages they used to get every week as cash, now get deposited in the bank once a month.
Shinde said, "Beedi workers took a big hit when demonetization happened. They used to get paid in cash every week, but they don't get cash anymore, which is an issue for them. Daily wage workers need cash in hand and demonetisation did not have a desired effect. Why they imposed it is still a mystery."
To campaign for Satpute, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an election rally in Solapur on April 29, while Uddhav Thackeray addressed a public meeting the same day to drum up support for Shinde.