Karnataka - Bidar   

Lambani to set foot in Assembly

Prabhu Chavan

BIDAR: A new face, Prabhu Chavan, has made a mark in the district after winning the Aurad (reserve) seat in the district by a huge margin of votes. He is a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate who has been successful in his first attempt at the Assembly polls.

Mr. Chavan (39) is a Lambani and the community also gets a representation in the Assembly in the district. Aurad became a reserved constituency for Scheduled Castes, after the delimitation process. Incidentally, in 1994, Lambani Laxmi Chavan of the BJP contested from Hulsoor (reserved ) constituency and won. Mr. Prabhu Chavan is the second Lambani to enter the Assembly.

His was fielded against Member of Parliament of Bidar, Narsinghrao Suryawanshi. But Mr. Chavan emerged victorious with a huge margin, winning 56,964 votes as against Mr. Suryawanshi’s 29,186 votes. Mr. Chavan was born in Bonti Tanda of Aurad taluk. He has spent most parts of his political life in Maharashtra as he is a follower of former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Gopinath Munde. He was the vice-president of Thane BJP unit in Maharashtra before moving to Karnataka to contest the polls.

It is said that it was a calculated move by the BJP leaders to field Mr. Chavan in Aurad, keeping an eye on Lambani votes, which form a sizeable population in the segment. And, the choice of a Lambani candidate has paid off for the party.

The route to success for Mr. Chavan was not easy, as he had to face rebellion from his partymen with just a couple of days to go for the polls. Former party MLA from Aurad, Gundappa Vakil, joined the Congress. Mr. Vakil had represented the segment in 1999.

Earlier, some associations had raised an objection with the Election Commission regarding Mr. Chavan’s community. They said that Mr. Chavan hailed from the Banjara community and he therefore could not claim benefit under Scheduled Castes. But Mr. Chavan got clearance after a report from Department of Social Welfare stated that “both Banjara and Lambani are synonymous in the State”.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

JD(S) loses its hold in Bidar district
Suryawanshi’s Assembly seat dreams fall flat
Petrol outlets remain closed
Lambani to set foot in Assembly

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu