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    A murder, farmer suicides dominate the battle between estranged cousins in Osmanabad

    Synopsis

    While Nimbalkar is trying to remind the people as to how his father was killed, Sinh has been asking the former to focus on the party’s unfulfilled promises.

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    The other factor that could help the NCP is that this constituency has 15% (3 lakh) voters who are from the Dhangar community.
    OSMANABAD: Osmanabad district in Maharashtra shot into spotlight last year, but for the wrong reasons. Its MP, Ravi Gaikwad from the Shiv Sena, slapped an Air India air hostess which led to an outpouring of anger across the country.

    Sensing the mood, Sena had dropped an unapologetic Gaikwad despite the fact that he had won last time’s polls by a margin of 2.34 lakh votes, and has given the ticket to former party MLA Omraje Nimbalkar, who is pitted against Ranajagjit Sinh of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The two are cousins, but estranged.

    In what’s nothing short of a political potboiler, Sinh’s father Padamsinh Patil was accused of killing Nimbalkar’s father, Pawanraje. The two cousins are also related to Sharad Pawar’s family.

    While Nimbalkar is trying to remind the people as to how his father was killed, Sinh has been asking the former to focus on the party’s unfulfilled promises.

    Osmanabad suffers from chronic drought and the high number of farmer suicides; it records the most number of suicides in the state after Yavatmal. Last year alone, around 700 farmers committed suicide in Osmanabad, while this year, 150 have killed themselves. The drought this year is so crippling that even drinking water has become scarce; more than 300 water tankers are providing water to 1,100 villages daily.

    Like other regions of the state, farmers here are angry as they have not got adequate prices for their crops such as sugar cane and soyabean and are blaming the Shiv Sena-BJP government for it. “We should be getting at least Rs 5,500 per quintal for soyabean, while we actually got Rs 2,200. The government could have ensured proper prices by keeping a watch on traders,” Umesh Bansode a farmer.

    The other factor that could help the NCP is that this constituency has 15% (3 lakh) voters who are from the Dhangar community. The Dhangar community is upset with the ruling party because BJP leaders, including CM Devendra Fadnavis, despite publicly promising reservation for them before the 2014 elections under the Scheduled Tribe category, have done nothing.

    But NCP faces an unexpected threat; the party was banking on the Dhangar vote-bank, but Prakash Ambedkar has put up a Dhangar candidate -- Arjun Salgar -- from the constituency, which could hurt NCP’s chances as Salgar has been claiming that the Congress and NCP too have not fulfilled the community’s demand of giving them reservation under the ST category.


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