Nana Patlu, who heads the Congress in poll-bound Maharashtra, is seen as key to the great old party’s prospects in the agricultural belt of Vidarbha. The region, located in eastern Maharashtra, will see a direct showdown between the Congress and its arch-rival Bharatiya Janata Party, which is contesting 36 seats.
The Vidarbha region has a total of 62 assembly segments spread across Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadshiroli, Gondia, Nagpur, Wardha, Wasim and Yavatmal districts.
In 2014, Vidarbha had played a key role in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s emergence as a dominant player in Maharashtra politics. The saffron party had won 44 out of 62 seats in the assembly polls a decade ago, but the Congress has been reduced to 10 constituencies.
Patole, who was with the Bharatiya Janata Party during the 2014 polls, is said to have played a key role in the party’s landslide victory in the Vidarbha region. “The results of at least four constituencies – Bhandara, Gondia, Wardha and Chandrapur – were directly influenced by Patole’s campaigning. He turned the tide,” said Annaso Ingole, a Bhandara-based political activist. he said.
Notably, Patole started his political career in the Congress but switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2008. He was elected as a member of Parliament from Bhandara-Gondia constituency in 2014. Three years later, in 2017, Patole rebelled against the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership. He accused the central government of turning a “blind eye” to the plight of farmers in Maharashtra.
A meeting with then Congress president Rahul Gandhi in early 2018 paved the way for Patole’s return to the party. “In 2019, the Maharashtra Congress started showing the first signs of recovery in Vidarbha and that was due to Patole’s return,” Ingole pointed out. In the assembly polls held in the same year, the overall performance of the Congress was flat, but the number of seats in Vidarbha increased from 10 to 15.
