21 March,2024 03:21 PM IST | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar | mid-day online correspondent
Babanrao Lonikar. Pics/X
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former minister Babanrao Lonikar on Thursday said that the Parbhani Lok Sabha seat should be contested by his party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024 and expressed confidence that it will win it with a huge majority, reported the PTI.
Sanjay Jadhav of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is the sitting MP from Parbhani. He won the seat in 2019 and 2014.
"The Parbhani Lok Sabha seat should be contested by the Bharatiya Janata Party. I have put forth this demand before Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other senior leaders," Lonikar told a Marathi news channel in Jalna, as per the PTI.
The BJP legislator's assembly segment Partur in Jalna falls under the Parbhani Lok Sabha constituency.
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"Partur, Jintur and Gangakhed assembly segments under Parbhani Lok Sabha seat are held by the BJP. We also have 17 zilla parishad members, 92 panchayat samiti members in the constituency. The voters here support the Hindutva ideology and the NCP candidate got defeated in this constituency twice," Babanrao Lonikar said, according to the PTI.
He expressed confidence that the BJP will win the Parbhani seat with more than two lakh votes.
In 2019, Sanjay Jadhav defeated Rajesh Vitekar of the NCP (then undivided).
Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20 and votes will be counted on June 4.
In the first phase, scheduled for April 19, 2024, voters in five key constituencies, including Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara Gondia, Gadchiroli Chimur, and Chandrapur, will cast their votes.
The second phase of voting, slated for April 26, 2024, will see polling in eight constituencies, including Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal Washim, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani.
On May 7, 2024, the third phase of voting will take place across 11 constituencies, covering regions such as Raigad, Baramati, Dharashiv, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, and Hatkanangle.
The fourth phase will be held on June 4, 2024 for seats including, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Sambhajinagar, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar, Shirdi and Beed.
The fifth and final phase of voting will take place on May 20, 2024, encompassing 13 constituencies, including Washim, Dindori, Nashik, Palghar, Bhiwandi, Welfare, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, and Mumbai South.
(with PTI inputs)
