Dhule, May 12 (IANS): Falling in the onion-growing belts of north-western Maharashtra, the Dhule Lok Sabha constituency is beset with woes similar to its neighbours like Nandurbar, Dindori (ST) and Nashik, all bordering Gujarat state.

An erstwhile Congress bastion, Dhule has been bagged by the Congress in 10 Lok Sabha elections and six times by the BJP. After the delimitation exercise, from 2009, Dhule has become a Bharatiya Janata Party stronghold, and the party is now hoping to retain it for the fourth consecutive time.

It is currently represented by a cancer specialist medico, Subhash R. Bhamre, who is among the handful of BJP MPs who were not dropped and will attempt his hat-trick from Dhule in the May 20 parliamentary elections.

His prime opponent is another medico, veteran Congresswoman Shobha D. Bachhav, who came up from the grassroots to become a Mayor and Maharashtra Minister.

Without a perceptible wave to help both sides, the battle for Dhule has chiefly become a battle between the two good doctors, and it remains to be seen who will ‘treat’ and who will provide the ‘healing touch’ to Dhule.

For starters, aware of the farmers’ strong resentment and a potential anti-incumbency factor, Bhamre is zealously attempting to safeguard the party stronghold with a strong campaign.

On the other hand, the seasoned INDIA-MVA bloc candidate Bachhav is exploiting her rival’s negative sentiments to her advantage -- with the recent onion farmers’ crisis coming as an opportunity to bash the BJP -- to grab its 15-year-old domain, while campaigning vigorously.

Sprawled across the Dhule and Nashik districts, the Dhule Lok Sabha constituency comprises six assembly segments of which two are held by the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), two by the BJP, one by the ruling Shiv Sena and one by the Congress.

They are -- AIMIM’s Dhule (MLA Shah Faruk Anwar) and Malegaon Central (MLA Ismail A. Khalique); BJP’s Sindhkheda (MLA Jaykumar Rawal) and Shiv Sena’s Malegaon Outer (MLA Dadaji D. Bhuse) besides Congress’ Dhule Rural (MLA Kunal R. Patil) -- who, incidentally, had lost to Bhamre in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

A largely agrarian economy with a rural population, Dhule is on the threshold of evolving into a major transportation infrastructure hub as it falls on the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project and is linked by other major national highways.

An erstwhile cantonment area, it has one of the earliest government medical facilities in the country called the Dhulia Civil Hospital set up by the British regime in 1825 and still functions as an important rural civil hospital.

The region is equally famous for its old fort in Dhulia, dating back to 1575 but still in decent condition given the ravages of over 450 years, and has many temples plus other religious sites that attract pilgrims from all over India.