Third Phase of Polls: From sugar belt to mango country, fate of stalwarts at stake in Maharashtra

In the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is being challenged by Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar.

A total of 11 seats are going to polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Out of these, seven are from the sugar belt of Western Maharashtra, two from the coastal belt of Konkan, also known for its Alphonso mangoes, and two seats from the Marathwada region. However, three seats are being keenly observed where the fates of high-profile candidates are at stake.

The biggest contest is on the Baramati seat where two members of the Pawar family are fighting against each other.  The fight is between a daughter and a daughter-in-law. Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule is being challenged by Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar. While Sunetra is banking upon her husband's hold on the cooperative institutions of the region and top leaders from the NDA alliance including PM Narendra Modi are campaigning for her,  Supriya is relying on the emotional connection of her father with the people. Her performance as the MP in Parliament adds to her advantage. The result of this seat will determine whether Sharad Pawar remains relevant in Maharashtra politics.

BJP stalwart Narayan Rane's political career also depends on the outcome of Lok Sabha results. Rane is a cabinet minister in the Modi government and an ex-CM. He is known as the strongman of Konkan as been elected as an MLA six times. The party has pitted Rane against Shiv Sena's Vinayak Raut, who was first elected in 2014 and is now looking forward to a hat-trick. While BJP stalwarts like Amit Shah and MNS chief Raj Thackeray have organised rallies in Rane's support, Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya have campaigned for Raut.

The third constituency of interest is Solapur where the INC has given candidacy to Praniti Shinde. She is the daughter of the party stalwart and former union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde who was also CM of Maharashtra. Shinde had contested the 2014 and 2019 elections but lost to the BJP candidates. Praniti, who is debuting in Lok Sabha polls, has to face the BJP's Ram Satpute. A triangular fight was likely on this seat but VBA's candidate withdrew his nomination.

There are a total of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. In the last elections, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance bagged 41 seats whereas the Congress-NCP alliance won 6 seats. One seat was won by an independent candidate.