Once a Congress bastion, Nanded politics set to change with Ashok Chavan’s exit

Mumbai: Located on the banks of the Godavari River, the Nanded town is popular for its great antiquity. There are mythological references which link the bustling town to the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The city derives its name from Nandi, the bull vahana of Lord Shiva. 

During the medieval times, several kingdoms ruled Nanded and its neighbouring areas. In fact, Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th and last Sikh guru, spent his last days in Nanded and passed on the guruship to the sacred Guru Granth Sahib before his death in 1708.

Nanded also played a crucial role during the freedom movement. Post-Independence, the political landscape in Nanded was largely controlled by the Congress—particularly, the Chavan-family—late Shankarrao Chavan and Ashok Chavan, both two-time chief ministers of Maharashtra.

Now, the politics of Nanded is set to change once again with the veteran Maratha leader, Chavan, leaving the Congress and joining hands with the BJP. Chavan's exit from Congress would mean the dominance of BJP and Maha Yuti, the NDA in Maharashtra. 

Chavan had represented this seat in 2009 and 2019, while in 2014, his wife, Ameeta Chavan was elected from the family seat. Before delimitation, Chavan had represented the Mudkhed Assembly constituency seat in 1999 and 2003. Before that he was a MLC. 

As far as Nanded Lok Sabha constituency is concerned, in 2014, Chavan won the seat - the second seat for the Congress in the state - despite the Narendra Modi-wave. In 2009, the seat was represented by Bhaskarrao Bapurao Khatgaonkar Patil (BJP), the brother-in-law of Chavan. Patil had represented the seat in 1998 and 1999 from the Congress. 

Chavan’s father late SB Chavan had won the seat in 1980 and 1984, while the former won the bye-elections in 1987.

In 2019, Ashok Chavan lost Nanded Lok Sabha seat when he was defeated by BJP’s Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar.

As far as the six Vidhan Sabha segments are concerned, three are represented by the Congress - Bhokar (Ashok Chavan, who resigned as Congress MLA), Nanded North (Mohan Hambarde of Congress), Degur-SC (Jitesh Antapurkar of Congress, who won the bye-polls after his father Raosaheb Antapurkar died), two by BJP - Naigaon (Rajesh Pawar) and Mukhed (Tushar Rathod), while Shiv Sea has one seat - Nanded North (Balaji Kalyankar of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena). Hembarde and Antapurkar are very close to Chavan.

The Senior Chavan, known as 'Headmaster', had been chief minister twice, from 1975—1977 and 1986—1988, while Junior Chavan had two short-lived CM stints, from December 8, 2008—November 6, 2009 and from November 7, 2009—November 9, 2010, before he had to resign in the wake of the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai. 

Besides, the Marathwada region has also given two chief ministers - late Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar and late Vilasrao Deshmukh and one deputy chief minister- late Gopinath Munde. Congress veteran Shivraj Patil-Chakurkar went on to become the Lok Sabha speaker and union home minister.