SANJAY BORKAR
PONDA
Having won by a mere 76 votes in the Shiroda bypoll may have been a nail-biting finish for Subhash Shirodkar and his supporters, but the newly elected Shiroda BJP MLA is no stranger to close finishes. In fact, Shirodkar has won three polls and lost one poll by margins of 285 votes and below, during his 35-year-long political career.
Shirodkar had won his first election in 1984 by a margin of 3,620 votes against independent candidate Jaikrishna Shirodkar. Shirodkar then went on to win by a slim margin of 285 votes in 1989, when he defeated MGP candidate Ramdas Naik. Shirodkar’s victory margin further dropped to a mere 103 votes when he defeated BJP candidate Manohar Naik in 1994.
In the 1999 elections, Shirodkar won comfortably against BJP candidate Manohar Naik, defeating him by a margin of 3,209 votes. His winning margin came down to 1,135 votes in 2002, when he defeated BJP candidate Vishwanath Prabhu.
Later in 2007, his personal assistant Mahadev Naik, who fought on BJP ticket defeated Shirodkar by a mere 249 votes. Mahadev Naik later increased his winning margin to 2,262 votes in the 2012 polls. Shirodkar returned to power in 2017, this time with a comfortable margin of 4,870 votes.
The Shiroda bypoll in April, a triangular fight between the BJP, MGP and Congress enabled Shirodkar to win by yet another wafer-thin margin. This slim margin summarised the closely fought battle between Shirodkar and MGP candidate Deepak Dhavalikar during the Shiroda bypoll.
Shirodkar, who had resigned as Congress MLA and joined BJP, had a tough task to explain and persuade the people about his decision. On several occasions, he insisted that his switch to the BJP was only to promote development in Shiroda constituency.
On the other hand, Dhavalikar had continuously campaigned against defections and had appealed to the people to defeat defectors like Shirodkar. The sustained and concerted campaigning by Deepak Dhavalikar and his brother and Marcaim MLA Sudin Dhavalikar strengthened the party’s presence in Shiroda to such an extent, that the BJP was rattled and most ministers, including Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, had camped in Shiroda to campaign for Shirodkar. This proved a decisive factor in favour of Shirodkar, enabling him to retain his seat.
The MGP’s performance in the Shiroda bypoll has indicated that it is a powerful force in the region. From polling 5,815 votes in the 2017 assembly election, the MGP managed to add 4,770 votes in the bypoll. This has given rise to speculations that yet another tight and nail-biting finish in on the cards when Shirodkar takes part in his next election.
