Atal is Tiger for Sainiks now

tea-boy to the Sena city chief, everyone is counting on the Vajpayee magic. This little scene from the Sena office typifies the party dilemma across Marathwada, a region which has as many as eight Lok Sabha seats.

State minister Chandrakant Khaire, the Sena candidate from Aurangabad, tells you to your face that local issues can wait. `The elections this time have to address national issues, problems facing the country. The Vajpayee factor is the only factor. People have to decide whether they want him backor not. I will solve the local problems once we address this national question.’

Sena and BJP insiders say Khaire was reluctant to have a go at the Lok Sabha. But there is no escape now. It has fallen on him to return to the Sena the prestigious Aurangabad seat — the Sena refuses to give it to the BJP because it is said that whoever controls Aurangabad lords over Marathwada — where the Congress, in a bid to woo the sizeable Muslim electorate, has brought in old warhorse A.R. Antulay from Kulaba.

So when BJP’s Pramod Mahajan came calling at Aurangabad two days ago, Khaire was by his side. He was telling all and sundry that he belonged to Aurangabad while Antulay was an outsider. `Don’t worry. The Sena with BJP support will trounce the Congress. After all, everyone wants Vajpayee back,’ boasted Khaire.

It does not take a psephologist to tell you what is going on. Roles have been reversed. The BJP is playing Big Daddy and the Sena is willing to ride piggy-back. Anything to get back to power.

Perhapsthis is the reason why Gopinath Munde is pleased as punch in another part of Marathwada. Renapur in Beed district, Munde’s Assembly seat, already has visions of their man ascending the Chief Minister’s throne. `For so long, you in the media kept calling the Maharashtra government as the Sena-BJP alliance. You will soon call it the BJP-Sena alliance,’ says a Munde loyalist.

The Congress too sits on the horns of a dilemma. Nobody is sure about the extent of the damage done when Sharad Pawar walked out with his men. `Pawar has his pockets in Marathwada but he may not do so well. He is big only in western Maharashtra. He may find the going tough in Vidarbha too,’ says a Congressman.

But across Marathwada, Pawar’s NCP has fielded men wherever it can. The Congress is aware that this could lead to a division of traditional votes — one which does not augur very well for Antulay in Aurangabad or Shivraj Patil in Latur. After all, Shivraj Patil’s victory margin in the last elections was less than 4,000votes.

Antulay, who has been resurrected by the party to counter the Sena bid to wrest back Aurangabad, knows that his opponents are going to try and polarise the votes on community lines. `I know what they are capable of. Let them say what they want. I was even called an `Afzal Khan’ (a hate-word in Shivaji folklore) once. But can you doubt my secular credentials?’ he asks.

Antulay’s worry is not Thackeray. Not Pawar. Not even the S B Chavan lobby which opposed his candidature and still wants a say in Marathwada affairs. He has been pitted against Vajpayee, the new Sena warrior. But this is not just Antulay’s headache. Elsewhere in Marathwada — in Parbhani, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded and Beed — opponents of the Sena-BJP have come to realise that Vajpayee is Enemy No 1.