Maha polls: CPI-M aims to retain Palghar, bag two more seats

Nashik/Palghar : The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-INDIA bloc constituent Communist Party of India (Marxist) is working hard to retain its sole seat of Dahanu (ST) and win two more, Kalvan (ST) and Solapur City Central in the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The Left party has boosted its campaign in the reserved seats of Palghar (Dahanu-ST) and Nashik (Kalwan-ST) and the open category seat in Solapur (Solapur City Central).

CPI-M Polit Bureau Member and All India Kisan Sabha President Ashok Dhawale is spearheading the polls campaign with a series of rallies and meetings to woo the voters and reach out to the electorate in the three seats.

Dahanu (ST), considered a prestige seat, has the lone CPI-M MLA Vinod Nikole who is pitted in a multi-pronged battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Suresh Medha, plus the local strongman Bahujan Vikas Aghadi’s Suresh A. Padvi, Maharashtra Navirnman Sena’s Vijay D. Wadiya and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Santosh R. Thakre.

When Nikole romped home in 2019 in Dahanu (ST), he trounced the sitting BJP MLA Pascal Dhanare, and this time also the main contest was between the CPI (M)-BJP.

Interestingly, the CPI-M has won this seat (earlier Jawhar) 9 out of 10 times since 1978, and the noteworthy aspect is that despite the CPI-M putting up five different candidates, all of them emerged victorious, making this tribal belt the party’s little red bastion.

The region is famed for its Warli Tribal Revolt (1945-1948) led by the AIKS and CPI under the helmship of the legendary comrade-couple Shamrao Parulekar and Godavari Parulekar.

Kalwan (ST) is contested by the seven-time former MLA Jiva P. Gavit, a formidable contender who has locked horns with ruling ally Nationalist Congress Party’s Nitin Pawar and Mayawati’s BSP nominee Prabhakar D. Pawar.

When barely 29, Gavit was elected to the Assembly in 1978 first from the Surgana seat which became Kalwan after the delimitation exercise, emerging successfully from both seats six times and once respectively.

Reputed as a mass leader working for the rights of poor tribals, crusading for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act, he played a key role in the March 2018 Long March by tribals-farmers from Nashik to Mumbai that grabbed international headlines, and later was part of similar processions in February 2019 and April 2023.

For Solapur City Central, the CPI(M) has fielded the three-time MLA Adam N. Narsayya - popular as Adam Master, who is contesting against Chetan Narote of the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Devendra Kothe and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Faqoor Maqbool Shabdi.

Till June the seat was represented thrice by Praniti Shinde – now elected to Lok Sabha – and earlier it was held four times by ex-Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, a former union home minister, in the North Solapur seat prior to delimitation.

This time, the two MVA allies – CPI (M) and Congress – pitted against each other and also opposed the BJP and AIMIM, making it an uphill ride for all the candidates in the fray.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: qnajmi@gmail.com)