Malegaon: A month before the Maharashtra assembly polls were announced, it was said for sure that there was no one to challenge Dada Bhuse, the two-time Shiv Sena MLA from the Malegaon (Outer) assembly constituency, and he was most likely to retain the seat for the third time in a row.
[Sunil Gaikwad addressing a rally in a village in Malegaon Outer.]
In the last fifteen days however the situation has taken such a dramatic turn that a day before the voting it appears that Dada Bhuse - the strong Sena man in the area, will lose and it is Sunil Gaikwad who has actually got the edge in the election.
Sunil Gaikwad, a sitting corporator in the Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC), is contesting the election on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket, the party he had joined barely a month before the October 15, 2014 election.
Sunil Gaikwad, a sitting corporator in the Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC), is contesting the election on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket, the party he had joined barely a month before the October 15, 2014 election.
Dada Bhuse came into limelight in 2001 when he was accused of rioting and participating in the murder of a Muslim former councilor during the infamous October 26, 2001 Malegaon riot. Even as a criminal case was pending against him, he won the assembly election held in 2004, and also retained the seat for the second term in 2009. In February 2011, the Bombay High Court had declared his election as void due to non-disclosure of complete record of the criminal cases pending against him.
Though he is known for maintaining excellent contact with the people belonging to his constituency, and also has some important work and projects to his credit, the voters especially in the rural areas are said to be angry with him. It is said the voters in rural areas are unhappy because many promises Dada Bhuse had made to them remained unfulfilled. The anger against Dada Bhuse in rural areas is at such a level that in some of the areas he was not allowed to enter into the village.
It is hence a good number of people in the Malegaon (Outer) constituency are lobbying against him and are supporting Sunil Aba Gaikwad. It is exactly the same thing which people had done in the 2004 state election when they had lobbied in favour of Dada Bhuse to defeat the then strong leader of the constituency Prashant Hirey.
Gaikwad was earlier in the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). He won the civic elections on the MNS ticket, and also led the newly established party to win three corporators besides him in the 2008 Malegaon civic polls.
In the 2013 civic elections however he deserted the MNS, formed his own Malegaon Vikas Aghadi and won 05 seats. Finally, he joined with his colleagues the NCP a month before the assembly election. His clean image and excellent reputation with the people had helped him earlier when he gave stiff challenge to Shiv-Sena candidates and also won seats in the civic elections. Tomorrow's vote will test if his reputation is also useful for him in the assembly polls.
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