Archana Patil, Omraje Nimbalkar: Fight between cousins, in the backdrop of a murder

Osmanabad: Family feud, drama and high emotion form the bedrock of the contest playing out in Osmanabad constituency, in Marathwada, in the present Lok Sabha elections; to that end it is almost a mirror image of Baramati.

The shadow of the alleged murder of Pawanraje Nimbalkar, father of sitting Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Omraje Nimbalkar, by the then NCP leader Dr Padmasinh Patil, whose daughter-in-law Archana Patil is facing Omraje on an NCP ticket though her husband BJP MLA Rana Jagjitsinh Patil, looms over duel.

While Omraje is known for easy accessibility in the constituency, Archana is backed by a well-oiled Mahayuti. The Patils and Nimbalkars are locking horns for the fifth time – thrice in past assembly elections and the second time now for Lok Sabha.

The strife within the family dates back 20 years – in 2004, cousins Padmasinh Patil and Pawanraje Nimbalkar fought assembly elections against each other. Padmasinh won against his cousin by a little over 400 votes. In 2006, when Pawanraje was shot dead near Navi Mumbai, his family alleged Padmasinh’s hand behind the deed, stemming from political enmity over the 2004 assembly elections.

Padmasinh was booked by the CBI, and the case is still on. Meanwhile, Pawanraje’s son Omraje defeated Padmasinh’s son Rana Jagjitsinh in the 2009 assembly elections, further deepening the hostility within the family. Five years later, fortune favoured the Patils, as Rana won against Omraje in the 2014 elections.

Padmasinh, who was a senior NCP leader, won the 2009 Lok Sabha election from the Osmanabad constituency against Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Gaikwad, but lost in 2014 to the same candidate. In 2019, NCP fielded Rana Jagjitsinh while Shiv Sena gave the ticket to Omraje, who returned home victorious. The only solace for Rana was that he polled 96,000 more votes than his father did in 2014 – this was the reason why BJP fielded a candidate from NCP led by Ajit Pawar for the Osmanabad seat this year and Rana Jagjitsinh’s family member contested it for a better chance of winning. Interestingly, Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar is Padmasinh Patil’s sister.

Despite being a well-known NCP bastion since 1999, the electorate has voted in favour of Shiv Sena in four of the five Lok Sabha elections in the past 25 years. In last elections, Omraje won as a Shiv Sena candidate and remained with Uddhav Thackeray after the split in the party. Of the six assembly segments in Osmanabad constituency, Thackeray faction of Sena has only one MLA in Osmanabad. All other MLAs belong to the Mahayuti.

Battlelines of 2024

The cousins face one another once again. While development and Modi wave are Archana’s push, Omraje’s poll pitch is farmers’ issues. Two factors are at play in Marathwada – the Maratha reservation and the sympathy for Uddhhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, as both parties split with BJP’s support.

Although Archana is the face of NCP, her husband Rana Jagjitsinh has his fingers on the pulse of people; his focus has been on local development works such as building the Solapur-Tuljapur-Osmanabad railway line, promoting religious tourism through the Tuljapur temple renovation plan and bringing water to Osmanabad and other areas of Marathwada from the Krishna basin.

“Osmanabad needs an MP who belongs to the party in power at the Centre,” said Rana Jagjitsinh, underscoring that after the Mahayuti government came to power in June 2022 ₹6000 crore was given to bring around 6.5 TMC water to the area. “We will need thousands of crores more to implement the project to bring the flood water in Krishna basin to our area. For that we need the help of central government,” he said. “The ruling MP on the other side has not done any development work.”

Hence, “Ab ki baar 400 paar,” rents the air of his wife Archana’s rallies. “PM Modi has announced this time NDA will win 400 seats. He has ensured victory of 399 seats. I would be the 400th MP for which you have to elect me,” is her appeal to people.

While rival candidate, Omraje, is targeting BJP for “injustice” done to Shiv Sena and NCP, he is popular as a people’s person. As Sagar Chopate, a farmer from Osmanabad, said, “Omraje’s mobile number is displayed at various places. He takes everyone’s calls – he will speak to the bank manager if crop loan is denied to a farmer despite having the papers; if a talathi refuses to register the name of a land purchaser, the latter knows who to call to get the work done.” While Chopate added that soyabean and onion producers are a worried lot, as “they have suffered losses due to Central government’s policies”, he emphasised that despite having a sway over local bodies for 44 years, “the Patils failed to develop Osmanabad and were responsible for the backwardness of the district”.

“They killed my father as they don’t want anyone to oppose them in the district. So I stood against them since 2009 to raise the voice of the people. Now they want to defeat me to snuff out the voice of the opposition. Ridiculing my connect with people, they call my work ‘chillar’. This is insult to the common man and his problems. If I am ‘chillar’ why did they invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defeat me,” said Omraje.

Several people in the district however feel the scales may tilt for Rana Jagjitsinh, especially since he defected to the BJP in 2019. Today, he controls the local bodies and cooperative organisations. Kishore Gangne, former president of Tulja Bhavani Pujari Mandal, said, “Rana Patil has the vision of development and succeeded to get the approval for Tuljapur temple’s renovation which will cost ₹1300 crore. He is working towards bringing water to the area, which will enhance tourism and industrial development.”

Rana Patil also successfully managed to shift political equations by ensuring Congress leaders like Basavaraj Patil (from the Lingayat community) and Sunil Chavan (son of former Congress minister Madhukarrao Chavan) from Maratha community joined BJP, said Gangne.

Printing press owner in Osmanabad, Raj Dhavale, said while the NCP candidate is backed by the Mahayuti’s strength, those supporting Maratha quota agitation could back Omraje. “While Rana Jagjitsinh scores over Omraje on development, after he condemned the Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil for using abusive language for deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the community outfits may go against Archana Patil,” he said.

In an effort to control damage, Rana Jagjitsinh met Jarange-Patil in Jalna on Friday, with pictures of the meeting being promptly circulated by his supporters on social media.