In a fair reflection of the treatment meted out to the region by the governments in Mumbai and Delhi, the Konkan region is on the back-burner as most political pundits are busy tracking the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. Not surprising as the Konkan Development Board has remained a non-starter, years after Vidarbha and Marathwada got such bodies. And the Konkan Rail, meant to integrate the people of the coast with the rest of the mainland, remained more a tool for conduit of people and freight across the region.

The compression of the Lok Sabha constituencies in Konkan from three (Rajapur, Ratnagiri and Kulaba) to two (Raigad and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) has thrown up a choice of plenty and at least two heavyweights are likely to get crushed in the process. Three are sitting MPs, two from Shiv Sena, Anant Geete and Suresh Prabhu having represented their erstwhile constituencies four consecutive times and A R Antulay who lost the 1998 and 1999 elections to Peasants and Workers Party’s Ramsheth Thakur.

This time round, Antulay tries to retain erstwhile Kulaba seat even as Geete makes a shift from nearby Ratnagiri. A few hundred kilometres down south, Prabhu takes on Narayan Rane’s son, debutant Nilesh Rane in the newly formed Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency.

These two contiguous constituencies that have on one side a 700-odd-km coastline makes for difficult travelling and hence signs of campaigning are hard to find unless you know precisely where the candidates are on a given day. The public here seem unconcerned about the outcome, they need to be reminded that come April 23 they need to go and vote.

... contd.