Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections: BJP-led alliance falters in Vidarbha
Like Uttar Pradesh, it was a disappointment for the BJP and its alliance partners as the Mahayuti managed to win only 3 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats
Like Uttar Pradesh, it was a disappointment for the BJP and its alliance partners in Vidarbha as the “Mahayuti” (Grand alliance) managed to win only 3 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats in the region. The NDA had won all the 10 seats in the 2014 elections while they managed to win nine out of 10 in the 2019 general elections.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who is also called the ‘highway man of India’, secured his third term from the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency with a margin of around 1.40-lakh votes against his Congress rival, Vikas Thakre, but senior BJP leader and Maharashtra minister Sudhir Munganttiwar lost the battle by a huge margins of over 2-lakh votes in Chandrapur constituency from Pratibha Dhanorkar of the Congress.
Similarly, the sitting MP, Nanvneet Rana of BJP was defeated by Congress’ Balwant Wankhede in the Amravati (reserved for SC) constituency. Rana won the seat in 2019 as an independent with the help of united NCP and the Congress after defeating Shiv Sena candidate, Ananadrao Adsul. Later, she joined the BJP and contested from Amravati despite opposition from a section of loyal BJP rank and file in the district.
However, the BJP retained the Akola seat in this election when its candidate Anup Dhotre defeated his nearest Congress rival, Dr Abhay Patil with a margin of over 40,000 votes. Surprisingly, the leader of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, who had negotiated with the opposition alliance for seat adjustments that finally flopped, was reduced as an insignificant player in the elections. The BJP winner, Anup Dhotre’s father Sanjay Dhotre had been representing the constituency since 2004 and he even served as the union minister of state for HRD for a brief period in the Modi cabinet. He is not well and hence the party nominated his son as a BJP candidate from the constituency.
In Buldhana, the three-term sitting MP, Prataprao Jadhav of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), retained his seat by defeating his nearest rival, Narendra Khedekar of Shiv Sena (UBT), with a margin of over 34,200 votes. However, in Bhandara-Gondia constituency, the sitting BJP MP, Sunil Mendhe, who was initially leading, lost the seat to the Congress candidate, Dr Prashant Padole, with over 29,000 votes.
The Maha-Vikas-Aghadi candidates secured victories in other constituencies in the region, overthrowing the BJP-led coalitions. In Gadchiroli, the Congress nominee Namdeo Kirsan wrested the seat from the BJP, winning by a significant margin of over 1.40-lakh votes against the two-term MP, Ashok Nete.
The Congress also won the Ramtek (reserved for SC) seat, defeating the BJP coalition partner, SS (Shinde) faction, by a margin of over 80,000 votes. Shyamrao Barve of Congress, a political newcomer, emerged victorious by defeating the Sena (Shinde) nominee, Raju Parwe. Initially, the Congress had nominated Barve's wife, Rashmi, a former Nagpur Zilla Parishad President, but her nomination was rejected on the basis of “false” caste certificate, leading to the nomination of her husband, Shyamrao Barve, as the Congress candidate.
In Wardha, the incumbent MP, Ramdas Tadas of BJP, lost the seat to the NCP (Sharad Pawar) candidate, Amar Kale, by a considerable margin of around 85,000 votes. The opposition camp accused Tadas of abandoning his daughter-in-law Pooja and her baby, prompting Pooja to contest the election against Tadas to seek justice from voters. However, she lost her security deposit in the elections because of poor performance, but her presence and campaign badly affected the prospects of Tadas in the elections.
In the Yavatmal-Washim constituency, Sanjay Uttamrao Deshmukh from the SS (UBT) emerged victorious, defeating Rajshri Hemant Patil from SS (Shinde) by a margin of around one lakh votes. The SS (Shinde) denied a party ticket to its five-time MP, Bhavna Gawli, and fielded Rajshri Patil, wife of Hemant Patil, who represented Hingoli seat in the 2019 elections.