Maharashtra Election 2024: Everyone’s eyes are on many important seats in the voting to be held tomorrow for 288 seats of Maharashtra Assembly. The two sons of Vilasrao Deshmukh, the former Chief Minister of the state and who once had a lot of influence in the politics of Maharashtra, seem to be trapped in a tough contest this time. After Vilasrao Deshmukh, his legacy was first taken over by his elder son Amit Deshmukh. Later his younger son Dheeraj Deshmukh also entered the political arena.
Both of them succeeded in winning the assembly elections and this time both are again contesting on Congress ticket. This time, BJP has tightened the siege against elder son Amit Deshmukh by fielding the daughter-in-law of the country’s former Home Minister and senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil in the election arena. Second son Dheeraj Deshmukh is also facing a tough challenge from BJP candidate Ramesh Karad. In such a situation, the current assembly elections have become a battle of prestige for the Deshmukh clan.
Sons took over father’s legacy
Latur Assembly seat of Maharashtra has been considered the stronghold of Deshmukh clan. Former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh won this seat several times. Now son Amit Deshmukh has taken over his father’s legacy on this seat. Latur is known for its sugarcane belt and the Deshmukh family has several sugar mills in the area. Being an important part of Marathwada, the impact of Maratha reservation movement has also been visible here. There are six assembly seats in Latur. Interestingly, during the 2019 assembly elections, the three parties BJP, Congress and NCP had won two seats each.
Shivraj Patil’s daughter-in-law BJP candidate against Amit
This time in the assembly elections, an interesting contest is taking place on Latur City Assembly seat. As a Congress candidate, Amit Deshmukh won this seat thrice and he is contesting this seat for the fourth time to show his strength, but this time his political path is not considered easy. This time there has been a strong siege of Amit Deshmukh by BJP.
Actually, BJP has fielded Archana Patil Chakurkar, a veteran Congress leader and daughter-in-law of the country’s former Home Minister Shivraj Patil, on this seat. Due to Archana contesting the elections, the equations on this assembly seat have become complicated. To ensure election victory to Amit Deshmukh, his film star brother Ritesh Deshmukh also had to step down.
Due to this, Amit Deshmukh’s political path became difficult.
Shivraj Patil also seems to be stuck in a state of confusion due to his daughter-in-law contesting the elections. He has not campaigned for his daughter-in-law on the open platform, but according to discussions spread in political circles, he is internally busy helping his daughter-in-law. BJP has also used its full strength for the election victory of Archana Patil.
Despite Amit Deshmukh winning the elections thrice, this time there is resentment among the local people due to lack of expected development in the area. Local people are said to be angry due to Amit not staying much in the area.
Prakash Ambedkar’s party Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has also created a problem on this seat. Party candidate Vinod Khatke is also getting good support from the voters. In this way, the fear of division in the Dalit vote bank has also made the political path of the Congress candidate difficult.
Dheeraj Deshmukh also stuck in tough competition
Vilasrao Deshmukh’s second son Dheeraj Deshmukh also seems to be in a tough contest this time on Latur Rural Assembly seat. He is contesting the assembly elections for the second time. On this seat, BJP has presented a tough challenge to Dheeraj Deshmukh by fielding Ramesh Karad. Ramesh Karad has been active in local politics for almost 20 years. BJP’s organization is also considered very strong in this area. BJP workers are seen active in the entire area. Ramesh Karad is also getting considerable support from voters from backward castes.
This time BJP looks excited
During the 2019 assembly elections, BJP had an alliance with Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena contested the Latur Rural seat. Due to this, there was a lot of resentment among the BJP workers and 29 thousand people pressed the NOTA button. This time the political situation has completely changed.
After performing well in the District Panchayat elections, BJP is now trying to show its strength in the Assembly elections also. The prestige of the Deshmukh clan is at stake on both these seats of Latur district and BJP can cause severe damage to the clan on both these seats.
