Maratha, Dhangar quota to dictate result

Police cases against Maratha quota agitators, slow progress of the Beed-Ahmednagar railway line, and reservation for the Dhangar community are the dominant issues in Maharashtra's Beed Lok Sabha constituency that goes to polls on May 13.

The central Maharashtra district was in the news last year when an intense agitation for quotas for Marathas in jobs and education took a violent turn and the houses of some political leaders came under attack.

The BJP has fielded former state minister Pankaja Munde from the seat, making her the third member of the Munde family to contest from here in the last 15 years. Her father and BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde won the seat in 2009 and 2014 while her younger sister Pritam Munde won the by-election in October 2014 after their father's death and retained the seat in the 2019 polls. But this time, the BJP replaced Pritam Munde with Pankaja Munde whose main rival is Bajrang Sonawane of the NCP (Sharad Pawar). "The Maratha quota agitation and nearly 200 offences registered during the period are a big issue in this election. Another issue is why Pritam Munde was replaced when she had won twice from the seat with good margins," said senior journalist Datta Deshmukh.