Hingoli (Maharashtra), April 23 (IANS): A few months before the Lok Sabha elections, the Hingoli Lok Sabha constituency shot into the limelight when ruling Shiv Sena MP, Hemant S Patil, abruptly quit in late-October 2023 in support of Maratha reservations.

The development had immensely embarrassed the Mahayuti alliance government of Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP that was grappling with the massive Maratha agitations led by Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil.

Though Patil’s name was tentatively announced as the Hingoli candidate in late-March, the party was compelled to take it back at the last minute, ostensibly due to the resignation faux-pas, despite his fervent pleas to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.

Undeterred by threats of backlash and dissension among party workers, Shinde acted firmly and replaced Patil with Baburao Kadam-Kohalikar, a low-profile activist with a farming background.

He will lock horns with the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Nagesh B Patil-Aashtikar, a former MLA, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate, Dr. BD Chavhan, and other smaller parties, plus Independents.

Coming into existence in 1977, Hingoli remained a Congress stronghold, but later became a (undivided) Shiv Sena bastion, while the BJP has yet to open its account here.

It first elected a Janata Party candidate in 1977; then the Congress nominees were elected five times; four times it was the Shiv Sena and once a (undivided) NCP candidate (2004).

Sprawled across three districts (Yavatmal, Hindoli and Nanded), Hingoli Lok Sabha constituency comprises six Assembly segments, of which three are currently held by the BJP, and one each is with the ruling ally Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP.

They are the BJP’s Umarkhed-SC (MLA Namdev J Sasane), Kinwat (MLA Bhimrao Keram), Hingoli (MLA Tanaji S Mutkule); Kalamnuri (Shiv Sena MLA Santosh L Bangar), Basmath (NCP, MLA Chandrakant R Nawghare) and Hadgaon (Congress, MLA Madharvao N Pawar).

With a predominantly rural population, this constituency with 11.80 lakh (Census 2011) people is home to one of the 12 and among Maharashtra’s five Jyotirlingas, the famed Aundha Nagnath Shiv Temple.

It was earlier controlled by the Nizams’ empire of Hyderabad as a major military base before it came to Maharashtra (1956) and earlier was the scene of at least two bloody wars in history.

The first war was fought in 1787 between the Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan’s army and the Marathas, followed by a second battle between two local rulers in 1857 – the same year when the First War of Indian Independence started.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)