Nagpur: With the nomination window closing on October 29, Maharashtra is now set for a high-stakes battle as voters head to the polls on November 20 to elect representatives for the 288-seat Assembly. This election will witness a showdown between two formidable alliances: the ruling Mahayuti coalition, comprising the BJP, the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, and Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction, and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), featuring the Congress, Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction, and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction.
In Nagpur, where six Assembly constituencies are in play, prominent candidates are mobilizing resources and finalizing strategies to outsmart opponents and secure crucial victories.
Today’s Rate
Saturday 23 Nov. 2024
Prestige at stake for Nagpur South West seat
The Nagpur South-West Assembly constituency is very sensitive and important too. Prestige is at stake. It has Devendra Fadnavis, now Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, otherwise Chief Ministerial candidate. Before the formation of this constituency, Fadnavis had won two elections from Nagpur West and then switched to Nagpur South-West.
In his first fight, Fadnavis had defeated Gudadhe. Nagpur South-West is a newly-formed Assembly constituency in the city and in 2019, this constituency was won by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the 2019 elections, Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party won the seat by defeating Dr Ashish Deshmukhof the Indian National Congress with a margin of 49,344 votes. In 2009 Fadnavis had defeated Vikas Thakre. In 2014 he won the polls defeating Gudadhe. In 2019, Ashish Deshmukh contested the polls and he gave a tough fight as Fadnavis won by mere just over 40,000 votes.
Key contest between Congress-BJP 20 in Nagpur West seat
As the deadline for nominations closed on Tuesday, the political landscape in Nagpur West has heated up with a total of twenty candidates ready for battle for the Assembly seat. The contest is shaping up to be a showdown between Congress’s Vikas Thakre and Sudhakar Kohale, the District Unit chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Adding a twist to the election is the expelled Congress leader Narendra Jichkar who has thrown his hat in the ring as an Independent candidate. Thakre, who secured his position in the 2019 elections with 83,252 votes—representing 47.6% of the total— will be aiming to retain his seat amid a strong challenge from Kohale, who represented Nagpur South in 2014 assembly elections.
Thirty-eight candidates in fray from Nagpur East
The political arena in Nagpur East is getting more intensive as a total of 38 candidates filed their candidature to lock horns for the upcoming State Assembly elections which is scheduled on November 20. From the last three Assembly elections, Nagpur East constituency is a stronghold of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as Krishna Khopde did hat-trick to become MLA from the seat.
Now, in the upcoming election, Khopde will contest the poll to maintain his victory for the fourth time. Previous candidate Purushottam Hazare who scored 41%votes from this constituency, is contesting this election as Independent candidate. Similarly, Abha Bijju Pande will also contest the poll as an Independent candidate. Others joining the fray are — Duneshwar Pethe of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar); Mukesh Masurkar of Jai Vidarbha Party; Mukesh Meshram of Bahujan Samaj Party; Ganesh Harkande of Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi; Tekraj Belkhode of Bahujan Mukti Party; Nushyan Humane of Peoples Party of India (Democratic); Adv Suraj Mishra of All India Forward Bloc.
Keen battle in Nagpur Central seat
Central Nagpur is going to witness a keen battle between the two national parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. At the end of nominations, the emerging picture showcases a triangular fight as the presence of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader could influence the outcome. On record, BJP has changed its 3-time MLA and reposed faith in former Mayor and MLC Pravin Datke who will take on youth leader Bunty Shelke. Bunty was unlucky in the last election, in 2019, when he lost the battle to BJP’s Vikas Kumbhare in a tight fight. The winning margin in 2019 was just 3,000 votes for BJP showing that the election during this time is also going to be quite intense.
While the main fight is going to be between Datke and Bunty, the presence of Congress rebel Ramesh Punekar, shows signs of adding drama to the battle. Punekar belongs to the dominant Halba community which so far was represented by Kumbhare in the constituency.
Nagpur North seat to see fiery contest:
Nagpur North Assembly seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste, is poised to witness an intense battle this time between two recent winners. Sitting MLA from the constituency Dr Nitin Raut of Congress faces competition from Dr Milind Mane of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Dr Mane has already defeated Dr Raut once in 2014 Assembly elections after three consecutive victories from the latter from 1999 to 2009. Dr Milind Mane has been a Corporator before becoming MLA from North Nagpur in 2014, but could not retain the seat in straight fight in 2019 elections when he lost by a margin of 20,694 votes.
Other notable contestants in the constituency include former Congress corporator Manoj Sangole who is contesting on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, and Buddham Raut. These candidates can dent the core constituency of Dr Raut.
Straight contest in Nagpur South seat
A straight fight is again on cards in South Nagpur Assembly segment as Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates slug it out in the race to win the people’s mandate. Old rivals, Girish Pandav from Congress and sitting MLA Mohan Mate from BJP are again in the ring of nine candidates trying to assert their supremacy. The others in fray are not going to make any impact as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that was once seen a steady rise in its vote share has almost vanished from the scene. This leaves the two old rivals to replay their match with each expecting to assert one’s supremacy in the constituency.
