Agrarian crisis, naxalism & strong presence of RSS: Vidarbha is now a tough terrain for Congress

The central Indian region of Vidarbha - which was once a Congress stronghold has become an arena of the BJP amid churning in Maharashtra politics.

The Nagpur city, the hub of Vidarbha, is considered the geographical centre of India - and the Zero Mile is located here.

This is also the region where there is a demand for statehood, however, in the last decade, the agitation has weakened.

Vidarbha region also has Wardha, where Sevagram Ashram— the residence of Mahatma Gandhi from 1936 to his death in 1948, is located. Gandhi decided to make a village in Central India his headquarters and he came to Wardha in 1934, at the invitation of businessman-philanthropist Jamnalal Bajaj - and established Sevagram, the village of service.

The adjoining district of Nagpur houses the headquarters of RSS, the ideological parent of BJP. Popularly known as Doctorji, Keshav Baliram Hegdewar founded RSS in Nagpur with the ideology of Hindutva and goal of creation of Hindu Rashtra.

Ramtek is the place where Kalidas wrote Meghdoot.

The Gadchiroli district is affected by Naxalism and is often used by Maoists to oscillate between Telangana and Chhattisgarh.

Incidentally, Vidarbha was the first region to be affected by the agrarian crisis where where large number of farmers have died by suicide.

Polling in Vidarbha, which accounts for 10 Lok Sabha seats of the 48 in Maharashtra, would take place during Phase-1 (19 April) and Phase-2 (26 April).

Post delimitation, the number of seats have increased in Vidarbha from 8 to 10.

Pre-delimitation, in 2004 polls, the BJP got four seats and Shiv Sena three seats while Congress managed one seat.

In 2009, Congress had the largest tally with four seats while its ally NCP got one. Shiv Sena and BJP got three and two seats, respectively.

During the 2014 Narendra Modi-wave, the Congress-NCP Democratic Front failed to open the account, however, BJP won six seats and Shiv Sena four.

In the 2019 polls, the only Congress seat in the state came from Chandrapur, while BJP got five seats, Shiv Sena three and Independent/Others one.

Realising the importance of the region, the Congress hosted 138th foundation day (28 December, 2023) in Nagpur with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally. However, the response was not what the grand old party was expecting.

For BJP, Nagpur is important because besides being housing the office of RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat, it is now represented by Road and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. The Congress has put up sitting MLA Vikas Thakare against him.

BJP’s trouble-shooter and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule too hail from the city.

In the straight fight between Maha Yuti-NDA and Maha Vikas Aghadi-I.N.D.I.A., the Congress would make every effort to recapture its once bastion.

The Vidarbha region has two divisional headquarters - Nagpur and Amravati, the second biggest city and business hub in the region.