Shetti loses in Hatkanangle, cane growers lose voice in parliament

Pune The 17th Lok Sabha will not have strong farmers’ voice from western Maharashtra, Raju Shetti.

Shetti, founder of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, lost to Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane by a margin of over 97,000 votes, in a bitterly fought contest after he exited National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined Congress-NCP combine.

Among the contributing factors in Shetti’s defeat was presence of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate Aslam Badshahaji Sayyad in the fray. Sayyad got over 1.18 lakh votes, most of which could have been diverted to Shetti had the VBA not contested polls in this rural constituency of south-west Maharashtra, feel political observers.

Shetti whose political journey beginning from Zilla Parishad to Parliament and went parallel to his rise in the agrarian movements was polled 472912 while his nearest rival Mane received 568004. The two-time MP after having left the NDA in September 2017 has become one of its staunch critic of NDA.

Part of Kolhapur district, Hatkanangle is mostly a rural constituency with large number of sugarcane producers where Shetti led multiple agitation for the past one decade demanding higher support price for their produce.

Political observers feel Shetti after joining UPA could not convince his votebank from western Maharashtra to back the Congress-NCP, against whom Shetti has been fighting for more than a decade.

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