Independents with names similar to official party nominees likely to spark confusion

Kolhapur: “What’s in a name?” may sound cliche, but it seems to have become a strategy for several independent candidates to leave voters confused this poll season.In four of the 11 Maharashtra Lok Sabha constituencies, where voting is scheduled in the third phase on May 7, independent candidates with names that sound similar to the names of official political party nominees are in the fray.In the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, where NCP (SCP) candidate Supriya Sule is taking on NCP’s Sunetra Pawar, an independent named Sharad Ram Pawar, whose name can be confused with NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s, is contesting. There is another candidate named Sunita Pawar, whose name sounds similar to Sunetra Pawar’s.In Hatkanangle, Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Satyajeet Babasaheb Patil (Aaba) Sarudkar is contesting. However, the name of an independent candidate, Satyajeet Patil (Aaba), may mislead voters here. The same constituency also has two candidates with the Mane surname — Parshuram Mane and Rajendra Bhimrao Mane — who may be confused with Shiv Sena candidate Dhairyasheel Mane. In 2019, the Sena candidate had defeated Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti by nearly 1 lakh votes. At that time, an independent candidate named Raju Mujikrao Shetti was in the fray and had garnered 8,103 votes. In Raigad, there is fight between Shiv Sena’s Anant Geete and NCP’s Sunil Tatkare.The Sena candidate would be hoping the two other similarly named independents in the fray — Anant Padma Gite and Anant Baloji Gite — do not play spoilsports. One poll aspirant named Sunil Dattaram Tatkari has already withdrawn. Interestingly, in the 2014 election, an independent named Sunil Tatkare had polled 9,889 votes while the official NCP candidate, Sunil Tatkare, lost by only 2,110 votes.In Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Sena (UBT) candidate Vinayak Raut is facing BJP’s Narayan Rane. However, an independent named Vinayak Lavu Raut may affect his vote count.Political science experts advise voters to not go by just the candidate name. They should check the party name as well as symbol in addition to the candidate name before casting the ballot. “Political parties try to find and field candidates with same or similar names to that of rival nominees. Such attempts are made to mislead the voters and cut into the votes of political rivals. Often, voters look at the party symbol only. If the voters are literate, they check only the name of the candidate and can be confused by similar names, as was the case with Sunil Tatkare. The election authorities and political parties should make voters aware and teach them to differentiate between candidates bearing similar names,” said Ravindra Bhanage, a professor in the political science department of Shivaji University Kolhapur.