Wardha Lok Sabha Battle: Farmer Issues A Focal Point in This Phase-2 Maharashtra Seat

Wardha Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra. The constituency comprises six assembly segments: Dhamangaon Railway (BJP), Morshi (SWP), Arvi (BJP), Deoli-Pulgaon (Congress), Hinganghat (BJP), and Wardha (BJP).

Ramdas Tadas of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the incumbent MP of Wardha and he will try to retain the seat this time. Other top contenders include Amar Sharadrao Kale from the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar and Professor Rajendra Salunkhe from the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi.

Polling will take place in Wardha on April 26 in the second of seven phases in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Political Dynamics

1. The sense one picks up from the ground is that the BJP-led Mahayuti is significantly ahead of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Wardha. Known to be a Congress stronghold for long, the BJP is now the dominant political force in this constituency, which has a historical connection with Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi spent the final decade of his life in Wardha, in a village now known as “Sevagram”.
2. The BJP has fielded incumbent MP Ramdas Tadas once again. Tadas belongs to the Teli community, which usually has the final say in who wins elections from this constituency. Apart from its core vote bank here, the BJP is eyeing a significant share of the OBC vote from the Kunbi community as well. The strategy is to galvanise voters who have benefitted from central government schemes in the past 10 years.
3. On the ground, the people of Wardha have tremendously benefitted from the Narendra Modi government’s development push. All villages here are now connected with roads, and people have been given concrete houses, tap water and electricity connections, toilets, LPG connections, and other basic amenities. Voters here say they finally see a government in action and will vote accordingly.
4. The BJP, on the back of the support it sees on the ground, has set the goal of increasing its vote share in Wardha by at least 5%. In 2019, the party had won about 53% votes here. To increase its vote share, the BJP is targeting first-time voters and the youth, senior citizens, and, of course, beneficiaries of government schemes. Wardha district has about 35,000 voters above the age of 80, and 15,000 new voters.
5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the biggest factor working to the BJP’s advantage. BJP’s candidate Ramdas Tadas has represented the seat for 10 years straight now, and there is obvious anti-incumbency against him. However, voters are expected to make a distinction between the candidate and PM Modi, which will push them to vote for the BJP.
6. The going has not been all that smooth for the BJP. In a major embarrassment for the party, Ramdas Tadas’s estranged daughter-in-law has entered the electoral battlefield as an independent candidate. Pooja Shendre has accused the BJP candidate of abandoning her and her infant. Pooja, who took her 17-month-old son along to file her nomination, said she wants justice for her son and other women who suffer like her. She claimed her fight is for the rights of every woman who suffers because of their in-laws. Meanwhile, Tadas has rejected all the allegations.
7. As part of its campaign, the BJP has galvanised its cadre in the constituency, who have been reaching out to every household conducting booth-level events to attract voters.
8. The MVA faces a multitude of problems in Wardha. For starters, the Congress cadre appears disillusioned over the party relinquishing its claim and gifting the seat to the NCP-SP as part of the alliance’s arrangement. Since this seat has been a stronghold of the Congress for decades, there is a sense of emotional attachment that party leaders and workers have always felt with it. However, the Congress’s organisation has now been forced to throw its weight behind the NCP-SP here.
9. The NCP-SP has fielded Amar Sharadrao Kale as its candidate from Wardha. Ground inputs suggest that Kale is not as well-known a face as the BJP’s Ramdas Tadas. Interestingly, Amar Kale is a former Congress leader, who jumped ship to the NCP-SP only recently. This is causing further heartburn for the Congress unit in Wardha, which cannot digest the fact that it is being told to campaign for a leader who left the party but still managed to get a ticket from the constituency. The common complaint is that the Congress should not have surrendered Wardha to the NCP-SP, especially given how the latter had no real candidate to field from here and eventually put up a former Congress leader itself.
10. For Sharad Pawar, Wardha is the only seat his faction of the NCP is contesting from in the Vidarbha region. It is not a surprise, therefore, that Pawar started his campaigning from here, in an attempt to somehow stage an upset for the BJP. While in Wardha, Sharad Pawar claimed the 2024 election is a fight to save India’s Constitution and democracy which have been threatened by a Modi-led BJP.
11. The Congress claims it is campaigning at the zilla parishad level rather than holding big meetings which require more time and effort. Among the issues that the party is raising before the electorate are growing unemployment, inflation, problems faced by youth and women, electoral bonds, and constitutional values. However, this might not be enough to successfully counter the voter consolidation in favour of the BJP, which is focussing more on development, the Modi factor, and Hindutva.
12. The Maha Vikas Aghadi is hopeful that its rainbow coalition, comprising the Congress, NCP-SP, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) will be able to rework the constituency’s caste arithmetic and attract a sufficient number of Kunbi, as well as Teli voters. However, while the Kunbis may support Amar Kale to an extent, the thought of Telis voting for the NCP-SP candidate instead of Ramdas Tadas, who belongs to the community, appears far-fetched.
13. Complicating the fight even further is the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi, which has emerged as an eyesore for the Maha Vikas Aghadi across Vidarbha. Scheduled Castes make up more than 14% of Wardha’s population. As such, the VBA could, like in most other seats being contested by it, prove to be a vote-splitter in Wardha as well.
14. Fortunately for the MVA, ground inputs suggest VBA candidate Rajendra Salunkhe is a relatively unknown face, who does not appear to have much support even among his party workers in the constituency.

Key Issues

Welfare Schemes: PM Awas Yojana, PM Jal Jeevan Mission, and PM Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana have had a major impact on the ground in Wardha. People in far-off villages who had to struggle for water, housing, and electricity are elated to have received these basic necessities under the various central government schemes. According to on-ground reports, this has left a positive impact among the constituents towards the BJP and they are likely to support the saffron party in the upcoming elections.

Agriculture Issues: Farmers in Wardha are miffed by the government’s failure to raise MSP for the staple cotton produce in the region. Farmers are in a constant state of distress. Most of the farmers do not have access to uninterrupted water and electricity supply. The lack of supply of funds to the MS Swaminathan Centre in Wardha led to its closure in 2015. According to reports, the centre was vital for farmers in the region for training and increasing output with limited resources. Its closure has affected the farmers’ ability to work with their limited resources and little to no on-ground support from the government.

Farmer Suicides: Farmer suicides are one of the major issues plaguing Wardha and the Vidarbha region as a whole. According to available data, 118 farmers ended their lives up to August 2022 due to issues related to farmer distress, crop failure and loss, and loan repayment failures. More than a thousand farmers have been ending their lives each year since 2006 in the Vidarbha region. According to the combined data so far for the region’s six districts tagged as farmers’ suicide prone, there have been more than 20,000 suicides.

Weak Opposition: According to ground reports, weak opposition candidates at the Centre have become a most pressing issue for the voters. They believe that no candidate in the opposition has emerged who is worthy to displace Modi. This is likely to be a major factor for the BJP to continue to win here for the third time in a row.

Water Scarcity: Nearly 85% of rainfall occurs here during the monsoon season. From June to September, torrential rains pound the fields, often causing soil erosion and water-logging. The remaining nine months of the year offer only limited and erratic rainfall. While the district has two perennial rivers, the Bor and the Wardha, water conservation systems have failed to address the issue of scarcity. In 2020, the region faced its worst water crisis in decades. Low water supply caused major chaos among the people with the city getting supply once a week, while 11 villages on the outskirts were getting water once in four days. In 2021, it was announced that the rejuvenation of the Dham river and Moti nullah may end the water crisis in the district.

Unemployment and Emigration: Despite having a literacy rate of 78.24% and the presence of good educational institutes, the lack of unemployment opportunities in the district has forced the youth to emigrate. The lack of industries and the absence of major central and state projects has led to a failure in generating employment for the youth.

Demographics

• Total Voters: 1762011 (approx.)
• SC: 273,112 (15.5%)
• ST: 188,535 (10.7%)
• Urban Voters: 507,459 (28.8%)
• Rural Voters: 1,254,552 (71.2%)
• Hindu: 80.1%
• Muslim: 5.8%
• Buddhist: 13.43%

Infrastructure Development

Road Development: Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sarak Yojana, roads have been constructed throughout the constituency reaching far-off villages and providing connectivity.

Wardha-Butibori Highway: Four-laning of the Wardha-Butibori Section of NH-361 from km 465.500 to km 524.690 was completed recently providing better high-speed road connectivity to and from Wardha.

Rejuvenation of Dham River and Moti Nala: Water conservation is underway at a 26-km stretch of Dham river in Yelakeli village of Wardha’s Selu taluka and a 9-km stretch of Moti Nala in Mandwa. The Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation has supported the water conservation work of Dham river and the water conservation work at Moti Nala is funded by the CSR fund of Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

Wardha-Nanded Line: The construction of the Wardha-Nanded New Line via Yavatmal-Pusad is making substantial strides. With a total estimated cost of Rs 3,445.48 crore, the project has seen an expenditure of Rs 1,910.07 crore to date. The completion of this new line is poised to enhance connectivity between the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, fostering economic and social development.

Wardha-Ballarshah 3rd Line: The Wardha-Ballarshah line is under development and has reached 67% completion. The project cost has been estimated at Rs 1,384.72 crore, with an expenditure of Rs 833.49 crore to date. The completion of this new 3rd line will significantly alleviate congestion on the busy Secunderabad-Wardha-Nagpur route, enhancing overall train mobility in the region.

Multimodal Logistics Park: NHAI and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) signed an MoU in October 2021 for setting up a multimodal logistics park in Sindi city of Wardha district. The development of the multimodal logistics park would enable export opportunities worldwide from the Sindi Railway Dry Port of Wardha.

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