BSP polled 11.55% votes in Vidarbha in 2004 LS polls

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) polled a whopping 11.55 per cent of the total votes cast in the 11 constituencies in Vidarbha at the Lok Sabha elections in 2004. The BSP polled 5,49,212 votes out of the total 47,56,380 votes that were cast in the region.
In fact, BSP candidates polled more than the margin of victory in four constituencies. The tally of the party’s candidate was very close to the victory margin in one constituency, and was over 50 per cent of the margin in three others. In only three constituencies were the BSP nominees unable to make a dent, not touching even the 10,000 mark in one of those.
Candidates of the BSP polled more than the margin of victory in Bhandara, Wardha, Ramtek and Chandrapur constituencies. In Bhandara, where Shishupal Patle of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated Praful Patel of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by a narrow margin of 3,009 votes, BSP candidate Ajeeb Shastri polled 90,670 votes to rank third. The fourth candidate was way behind with just over 10,000 votes. Mr Patle polled 2,77,388 votes, while Mr Patel polled 2,74,379 votes. Mr Patel later got elected to the Rajya Sabha and is now Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation.
In Wardha, too, the battle was decided by a very narrow margin. Suresh Waghmare of the BJP (2,69,045 votes) defeated Prabha Rau of the Congress (2,65,857) by 3,188 votes, while BSP nominee Somraj Telkhede polled 54,009 votes. Mr Telkhede ranked third, being way ahead of Yeshwant Zade of the CPM, placed fourth, who could poll only 14,832 votes.
In Ramtek, Subodh Mohite of the Shiv Sena (2,76,720) defeated Dr Shrikant Jichkar of the Congress (2,62,618) by 16,102 votes, while Chandansingh Rotele of the BSP polled 55,442 votes. Here, again, the BSP nominee was placed third, with the tally of the candidate placed fourth being way behind at 15,647. (Dr Jichkar later died in a road accident.)
Incidentally, Mr Mohite later quit the Shiv Sena to join the Congress. In the by-election held afterwards, the Congress fielded Mr Mohite, while the Shiv Sena fielded Prakash Jadhav. Mr Jadhav defeated Mr Mohite by 32,502 votes in the by-poll held in April 2007, in which the BSP did not contest.
In Chandrapur, Hansraj Ahir of the BJP (3,66,014) defeated Naresh Pugalia of the Congress (3,06,191) by a margin of 59,823 votes, while Rajendra Vaidya of the BSP polled 1,04,416 votes. The candidate placed fourth could manage only 26,837 votes.
In Chimur, the tally of BSP nominee Yograj Kuthe was 75,099, pretty close to the margin of victory – 98,774. Here, Mahadeorao Shivankar of the BJP polled 3,36,711 votes to defeat Jogendra Kawade of the People’s Republican Party-Congress alliance, who polled 2,37,937 votes. The three constituencies where the BSP tally was more than half of the victory margin were (figures in brackets indicate BSP tally and victory margin, in that order): Amravati – 31,573, 52,314; Yavatmal – 30,137, 56,804; and Nagpur – 57,747, 98,500;
By contrast, in Akola, Buldhana and Washim constituencies, the BSP could not make a dent. In Akola, in fact, BSP nominee Vishram Tayde could not even touch five figures, managing only 9,951 votes. The margin of victory in Akola was 1,06,371.
In Buldhana, the margin of victory was 59,907, while the BSP polled 18,241. In Washim, the BSP tally was 21,943, with the margin of victory being 60,898.
Significantly, BSP chief Mayawati drew a packed audience when she addressed a public meeting here in October 2006, to mark the 50th anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism.
Vidarbha saw a ‘saffronwash’ in 2004, with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance winning 10 of the 11 seats in the region. The sole exception was Nagpur, where Vilas Muttemwar retained his seat for the Congress. He went on to become the Minister of State for Renewable Energy in the union cabinet.
Interestingly, in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections held a few months after the Lok Sabha polls in 2004, the BSP’s tally in terms of percentage actually went down – to 9.30 per cent (8,62,000 out of the 92,70,000 cast). However, its candidates upset many an applecart, polling more than the margin of victory in as many as 34 of the 66 assembly constituencies in the region! Of these 34, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance won on 19 and the Congress-NCP combine on 12, with independents winning on 3.
(UNI, Nagpur, March 12, 2009)