Friends are foes and foes have turned friends in Maharashtra's electoral battle

With parties breaking up and new alliances forming Maharashtra is seeing headspinning political realignments in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 where onetime colleagues have become rivals and enemies have become allies reported news agency PTIAn illustration of this was on display at Union minister Amit Shahs rally in Nanded on Thursday where former chief minister Ashok Chavan and Bharatiya Janata Party BJP candidate Pratap Patil Chikhalikar shared the stageChikhalikar then the MLA of undivided Shiv Sena from Loha in Latur district joined the BJP in 2019 and went on to defeat sitting Congress MP Ashok Chavan from Nanded a Congress bastion in the ensuing Lok Sabha electionsPM Modi at a campaign rally then had targeted Chavan over the Adarsh society scam while then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said Chavan was a dealer and not a leader reported PTIChavan joined the BJP in February this year and became its Rajya Sabha member He is now campaigning for Chikhalikar and other BJP candidates in the Marathwada regionShrirang Barne of the Shiv Sena defeated Parth Pawar NCP leader Ajit Pawars son in the Maval Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 It was the first time a member of Sharad Pawars extended family tasted electoral defeatCome 2024 and Ajit Pawar who parted ways with his uncle to join hands with the BJP last year and his Nationalist Congress Party NCP are campaigning for BarneOn his part Barne no longer owes allegiance to Uddhav Thackeray he is now with the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Ajit Pawar is now Shindes deputy in the state governmentAjit Pawar is said to have persuaded Amol Kolhe a popular television and film actor who was then with the undivided Shiv Sena to cross over to the NCP and contest against sitting Shiv Sena MP Shivajirao AdhalraoPatil in Shirur Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 Kolhe defeated AdhalraoPatilKolhe is now with the Sharad Pawarled NCP SP In the seatsharing arrangement of the ruling BJPShiv SenaNCP Mahayuti alliance Shirur seat went to Ajit Pawar and with the intention of defeating Kolhe he inducted Adhalrao Patil into the NCP Now Ajit Pawar would be campaigning against Kolhe his former protegeIn Mumbai SouthCentral constituency Rahul Shewale twotime MP of the undivided Shiv Sena is pitted against Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena UBTShewale joined the Shindeled Shiv Sena when the party split in 2022Desai a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray is largely known as a backroom warrior After his Rajya Sabha term ended Desai is making his debut in electoral contest against his former colleagueIn a further twist Desai will be banking on the support of Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad whose father late Eknath Gaikwad had been defeated by Shewale in the 2014 Lok Sabha contestIn Baramati two members of the Pawar family are facing offAjit Pawar used to manage his cousin Supriya Sules election campaigns in the past Now the NCP led by him has fielded his wife Sunetra Pawar against Supriya Sule the threetime MPThe battle has caused fissures in Ajits immediate family too as his younger brother Shrinivas and his family have come out in Sules supportIn Beed the BJP replaced sitting MP Pritam Munde with her elder sister and former state minister Pankaja Munde as candidatePankaja was defeated by her estranged cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde in the 2019 assembly polls Dhananjay Munde is now in the Ajit Pawarled NCP and he would be campaigning for Pankaja candidate of the ruling allianceIn coastal Raigad Sunil Tatkare of the NCP defeated longtime Shiv Sena MP Anant Geete by a narrow margin in 2019 Congress had then backed Tatkare as it was in alliance with Sharad Pawars partyNow Tatkare is with Ajit Pawars NCP while Geete has stayed with Uddhav Thackerays faction after the Shiv Sena split and he has Congress and NCP Sharadchandra Pawar by his sideBefore Devendra Fadnavis engineered splits in the Shiv Sena and NCP both were family parties Now the election has turned into a Mahabharat battle senior journalist and political commentator Prakash Akolkar told PTIWhile family members are fighting each other they are also helping erstwhile enemies he told PTIWith inputs from PTI