Mumbai, Nov 28 (PTI) Dynastic candidates -- those with family ties to established political families -- were fielded across party lines in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections, with more than 80 per cent of constituencies featuring such contestants.
But political connections did not guarantee success as a modest 30 per cent of such candidates won, noted a report compiled by activist and political observer Heramb Kulkarni.
Even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which routinely targets the Opposition over dynastic politics, had over 30 per cent of its contestants with ties to political families.
Of the total 288 constituencies, 237 (82 per cent) saw candidates from political families. They included the children, spouses, siblings or other relatives of former and sitting MLAs, MPs and ministers, said the report released on Wednesday.
The Nationalist Congress Party (SP) led by veteran Sharad Pawar had the highest proportion of dynastic leaders in its candidate list. Of the 86 candidates it fielded, 39 or 45 per cent were related to established politicians.
Of 59 candidates fielded by the rival Ajit Pawar-led NCP, 26 or 44 per cent had `family connections'.
The Congress followed closely with 41.5 per cent such candidates (42 of 101).
Of the 149 nominees fielded by the BJP (which contested the highest number of seats among all parties), 49 or 32 per cent were related to political leaders.
The two Shiv Sena factions had comparatively less dynastic representation in their lists.
The Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena (UBT) nominated 19 dynastic candidates in its list of 95 (20 per cent), while the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena too had 19 such nominees among its 81 contestants (23 per cent), the report said.
The region-wise distribution of dynastic candidates showed an interesting pattern. Western Maharashtra recorded the highest concentration, with 77 dynastic candidates, followed by Vidarbha with 49, Marathwada with 39, North Maharashtra with 38 and Mumbai-Konkan with 34 such contestants.
As many as 61 constituencies had more than one dynastic candidates. These included ten constituencies where there were three such contestants, and one constituency with four dynastic nominees in the fray.
In some places, family members faced off against each other. The most high-profile of these contests unfolded in Baramati where NCP chief Ajit Pawar defeated his nephew Yugendra Pawar, a debutant fielded by the NCP (SP).
In Kannad constituency, Sanjana Jadhav of Shiv Sena -- daughter of BJP leader Raosaheb Danve -- defeated her estranged husband Harshvardhan Jadhav who contested as an independent.
In Aheri, Dharamrao Baba Atram of Ajit Pawar-led NCP defeated his daughter Bhagyashri Atram of NCP (SP).
Of 237 dynastic candidates, 89 were successful in winning the election. A large proportion of unsuccessful candidates were from the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) which generally faced a rout, the report noted.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance of the BJP, NCP and Shiv Sena won a landslide victory in the November 20 elections, bagging 230 of 288 seats.
While the Congress and undivided NCP had always seen dominance of dynastic politics, the BJP saw a rise in the number of such leaders after 2014 when it came to power in the state as well as at the Centre, the report noted, though it did not provide any figures for the purpose of comparison. PTI ND KRK