Farmers’ issues take centre stage on last day of campaign
The battle in Shirur is primarily between two NCPs with Amol Kolhe taking on Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil
Shirur LS constituency
The campaigning for the Shirur Lok Sabha constituency, which goes to polls on Monday, May 13, concluded on Saturday. On the last day of the campaigns, top leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, Balasaheb Thorat, Sunil Tatkare, Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari among others held rallies and road shows in various parts of the constituency.
The battle in Shirur is primarily between two NCPs with Amol Kolhe taking on Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil.
On the last day of the campaign, the NCP (SP) conducted three rallies while Ajit Pawar’s NCP conducted two rallies in Chakan. Since both the candidates filed their nominations, there have been volleys of allegations and counter-allegations.
Adhalrao stated that voters would vote for him because of his previous work as an MP, whereas MP Kolhe was absent for the whole five-year term owing to his professional commitments as an actor.
Kolhe, the rival candidate, intensified the blame game by driving the story with charges that Adhalrao attempted to benefit from his position for his reportedly owned company. Adhalrao refuted the charges, claiming that the documents presented as evidence are misleading and have nothing to do with it.
On Saturday, Kolhe announced that he would take a five-year hiatus from acting to focus solely on the constituency and its development initiatives.
In rural pockets of the constituency, the major pointers are the woes of the farmers with the government failing to address the falling process of agricultural products.
The ban on onion export lifted before Maharashtra’s onion belt goes to poll is a key issue that can affect MVA candidates in Shirur.
Commenting on the issue, Kolhe said, “This government is an anti-farmer, who are suffering ₹3.50 lakh per acre loss for onion farming and the government is not concerned.”
He further noted the fact that over 53 people have died in the leopard attack and Ajit Pawar, the guardian minister of the district is busy campaigning for their candidates.
Adhalrao Patil stated that the big projects that Kolhe claims he has completed are actually his proposals, and Kolhe is misleading voters.
“We plan to do over ₹50,000 crores development work for Solapur Road, Pune-Nagar Highway and Chakan-Talegaon-Shikrapur road and railway project,” he stated.
