DHULE, February 20: In both the Dhule and Nandurbar Lok Sabha constituencies of this district, it is a straight fight between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Sunday's elections.In Dhule, both the parties have fielded former bureaucrats. In Nandurbar, four times Congress MP, Manik Hodlya Gavit, is facing an agressive campaigning by the BJP.
In Dhule the Congress nominee is former assistant commissioner in the revenue office, Dhanaji Sitaram Ahire, while the BJP has fielded Ramdas Rupla Gavit, a retired income-tax commissioner. While Ramdas Gavit opted for voluntary retirement in 1997, Ahire gave up his job on the eve of the ensuing polls.
Ahire is related to the sitting BJP MP, Sahebrao Bagul and also to the former Congress MP Reshma Bhoye (who was elected in 1980, 1984 and 1989). He is banking on his acquaintances in the constieuncy (where he served as a government official).
Ramdas Gavit's wife, Vanamala is a member of the Dhule Zilla Parishad and his brother, Gokul Gavit is aformer MLA from Sakri. He is also the president of BJP's tribal outfit, the Adivasi Aghadi, and has attempted to weave a network of workers long before the polls were announced.
The BJP has denied ticket to its sitting, as he had failed to keep in touch with party workers and nurture his constituency. Though the BJP claims that he is with them in the poll campaigns, the denial of a ticket and his relations with the Congress nominee, Ahire, might prove a stumbling block for the BJP contestant, Ramdas Gavit.
Both Gavit and Ahire represent the first generation of educated tribals from the district, like K C Padvi and Vijaykumar Gavit, who are always eager to make political fortunes, notwithstanding their commitment to their bretheren, or loyalty to a party.
The Dhule constituency comprises Kalwan, Sakri assembly segments controlled by the BJP, Baglan by an independent (from Shetkari Sanghatana) Sindhkheda by JD, Kusumba by Congress and Dhule by rebel Congressman.
Meanwhile, the Narmada Bachao Andolan(NBA) has given a call for boycotting the polls especially in the Akrani and Akkalkuwa talukas, where the total resettlement of 3,113 dam outsees is still incomplete.
N D Suryavanshi (lawyer of Medha Patkar, who leads the agitation) told The Indian Express that the NBA had issued an appeal to tribals to stay away from the polls. He said that while all the tribals displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project were yet to be resettled, those who had been shifted, had got a raw deal.
Officials at the district collectorate, however, pointed out that out of the 3,113 dam oustees, 2,193 had already been resettled since 19934, at various sites in Somaval, Dekati, Amori, Rozawa in Taloda taluka and Amli in Akkalkuwa taluka.
Manik Gavit, who was resting on his laurels, has found himself making old promises of complete and satisfactory rehabilitation to the displaced tribals. He has even offered better quality of lands to those who were given barren plots at the resettlement sites.
Local Congressmen pointedout that the boycott might have a limited impact and not enough to tilt the scales at the hustings. They claimed that Sonia Gandhi's meeting at Nandurbar on January 23 and the unity of the the party would help Gavit retain his seat.
The BJP, on the other hand, has undertaken the task of neutralising the Sonia influence. A door to door campaigning has been undertaken by Vijaykumar Gavit (a minister in the Manohar Joshi cabinet and Nandurbar MLA). The BJP candidate, Kunwarsingh Walvi, incidentally, has been contesting the polls unsuccessfully for the past four occasions.
Nandurbar has been a Congress bastion since 1977. The constituency comprises the Navapur, Shahada and Shirpur assembly segments represented by Congress MLAs, Taloda by BJP, Akrani and Nandurbar by Independents.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
