In Vidarbha's Gadchiroli, A Daughter Takes On Her Father

A cavalcade of SUVs packed with party workers and supporters makes whistle stops across the small villages in Aheri taluka of Gadchiroli district in Vidarbha. It’s election time and Bhagyashree Atram has thrown her hat in the ring with her Jan Aakrosh Yatra. Her vehicle leads the motorcade and she is seated in front, reaching out to people who wish to come up to her to chat. Clad in a light blue synthetic sari, pallu drawn across her shoulders, vermillion smeared on her forehead and sunglasses pushed up so that nothing comes in the way as she looks at her electorate, she is the picture of an earnest candidate who is taking nervous steps into the electoral battle.

There are reasons for her to be jittery. She has pitted herself against a four-time MLA from the Aheri Vidhan Sabha constituency, Dharamrao Baba Atram, minister of Food and Drugs Administration in the ruling Mahayuti alliance. He also happens to be her father. “I am sure of what I am doing, and I have no regrets,” she says, brushing off the accusation that she is at the root of an unsavoury family feud.

“In 2019, my father had said that this was his last election, and I had been preparing to take up the mantle from him,” says Bhagyashree, who was the president of the Zilla Parishad, Gadchiroli, in 2011 and the Bandhkaam Sabhapati Zilla Parishad from 2016 to 2019. “It is not that I have taken him by surprise. It was understood that I would contest the elections in 2024,” she says justifying her move.

In September, Bhagyashree joined the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) and declared her intentions to contest on a ticket which, she says, she had been promised by the Maratha strongman himself. Livid at his daughter’s defiance and what he termed as treachery, Dharamrao Baba Atram said, “I call upon the people of Aheri to throw her in the Pranhita River. “Ji bapachi zali nahi, ti tumchi kaye honar” (She couldn’t be loyal to her father, how would she be loyal to you),” he said at the Jan Sanman rally held last month in Gadchiroli. Also present on the stage was Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of the state, who too made a plea to Bhagyashree to not break the family. “I was very hurt with his comment, but I take it as his blessing,” she says and adds, “It doesn’t go well with their much-hyped Ladki Bahin Yojna of honouring sisters and daughters.”

The Atram family is a prominent tribal dynasty of Aheri. The Atrams were given the region more than 150 years ago by the British. Since then, the family has been the royal symbol of the taluka and has represented it in the state legislature. Raje Dharamrao Atram had two sons, elder Vishveshvar Rao and Bhagwant Rao. Vishveshvar Rao won the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate in 1957, and again in 1985. In 1990, Dharamrao Baba Atram contested the seat on a Congress ticket and won. In 1995, Vishveshvar Rao’s son, Satyavan Rao, won the seat for his party, the Nag Vidarbha Andolan Samiti. In 1999, Dharamrao Baba Atram fought the elections on an NCP ticket and won. He remained out of power from 2004 to 2009 and again contested against his nephew and Raje Satyavanrao’s son, Ambrish, in 2014. Ambrish, a London-educated lawyer, contested on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket. In 2019, Dharamrao Baba Atram defeated his nephew and reclaimed the seat. He has since been a member of the NCP (Ajit Pawar).

“It has been my job to keep my father relevant to the constituency when he has not been in power. He knows that too,” says Bhagyashree. In 2019, Dharamrao Baba Atram was trying for a BJP ticket, but did not succeed. “Bhagyashree and myself approached Ajit Pawar and asked him to give a ticket to Baba. He was reluctant as he didn’t want to lose to his nephew for a second time, but later relented. He wanted to withdraw and let Bhagyashree contest. I convinced him to stand for elections and told him that we will put our heart and soul to ensure that he wins, and Bhagyashree would contest in 2024,” says Rituraj Halgekar, Bhagyashree’s husband, who ensured a handsome win for his father-in-law in the 2019 assembly elections and is currently managing his wife’s campaign. “Even after he had won, he would keep saying that in the next elections, Bhagyashree should contest,” he adds.

The fact that Bhagyashree will now be pitted against her father is a smart strategy. The seat will remain within the family, whosoever wins. “This may appear to be a strategy, but whatever the results are, my father and myself have parted ways. There is no going back now, considering how he has spoken about me and my in-laws,” she says.

The couple believes that outsiders are responsible for Dharamrao Baba’s change of heart. Bhagyashree has been fighting for the rights of the local people in Aheri and wants them to be employed by mining companies that began operations here three years ago. Surjagad Ispat Pvt. Ltd and Lloyd Metals and Energy Ltd. are both located in Aheri and have begun mining of iron ore. “It’s fine that these big companies have come to Gadchiroli. All I want is that they should make our local youth part of this development process. Even the educated local boys are employed for petty jobs such as guards and watchmen on a salary of Rs 12,000 per month with duty timings that extend up to 12 hours, while the well-paying jobs are going to people they have hired from other states, especially from Odisha,” says Bhagyashree, who wants the local people to get good education and training too. “The middlemen and the henchmen around these industries have been poisoning Baba’s mind as they are scared that if Bhagyashree wins, she will make demands on the industries and will end this exploitation,” feels Halgekar. “They have managed to convince him that if he contests he will again be a minister,” he says.

Bhagyashree is upset that her father has reneged on a promise he made. “He is getting old and the youth and women do not connect with him. This is the age of social media and even in a district as backward as ours, women and youth have smart phones and are exposed to the world beyond their homes,” she says. “Gadchiroli has this tag of a Naxal-infested backward region. I want to change that. More than infrastructure, I want facilities and opportunities for tribal women and their children,” she says.

Halting at villages, where crowds have gathered to hear her, Bhagyashree takes up these issues. As she takes the microphone, she is cautious not to speak about her father. Her speech veers around women empowerment, and she asks the ladies in the crowd if she is wrong to contest. “Being a woman, I understand your problems more than anyone else. I know what sacrifices are to be made to bring up children and to adhere to guidelines that society has laid down for us,” she says very subtly, sidestepping the family issue while gently reminding the crowd what she is up against. “I know I can depend on my sisters here. I can reach out to you any time; visit your homes for haldi kumkum. Will you not welcome me?” she says attempting to break the ice. The women listen wide-eyed and then nod in agreement.

Her brother Harshwardhan and sister Tanushree, along with many of the party workers she had been working with, are supporting her father. Bhagyashree stands alone on her home turf, which has now turned into a battleground for her.

Barkha Mathur is a Nagpur-based journalist and author

(This appeared in the print as 'Fighting the Family Fiefdom')