Lok Sabha elections 2024: First phase Maha-battle lines drawn ahead of poll

Maharashtras first round battles for the 2024 Lok Sabha election have been set rolling Over the Holi weekend the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP announced three remaining candidates in eastern Vidarbha while its close rival the Congress came out with all five making it a straight fight between them in four places In one seat the Congress will contest against the BJPs ally Shiv SenaContest in NagpurThe first phase of voting on April 19 will decide the fate of the Modi governmentrsquos highprofile surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari The minister has won the last two elections with a thumping majority This time around he faces Nagpurrsquos sitting MLA Vikas Thakre The firsttime Congress MLA was reluctant to be in the contest considering a strong opponent but landed the candidacy because state Congress president Nana Patole backed out Gadkari had beaten Patole here in 2019It is unlikely that the Congress will have it easy in Nagpur where Gadkari is immensely popular for his allinclusive nature and massive body of infrastructure projects His supporters even ran a campaign to elect him unopposed appealing to the Opposition parties to not field candidates against him However no party in the Opposition has taken the appeal seriouslyBJP supporters celebrating File picThe Congress had no reason to stay away because in 2019 it had polled 375 per cent votes a jump of 10 per cent from 2014 The BJPs 5567 per cent votes were still much higher to be beaten and nearly two per cent more than the partys 2014 count Thakres unique selling point is that he had dented the BJPs stronghold of Nagpur West in the Assembly elections He is the partys local unit president Congress relies on sympathyYet another senior BJP leader state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar will meet the challenge thrown by the widow of the Congress MP Pratibha Dhanorkar in Chandrapur The Warora MLArsquos husband and MP Suresh Dhanorkar died last May but like the Pune constituency the byelection wasnt held here either The late Suresh was the Congresss only Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra The Congress and the Dhanorkar family are relying on the sympathy factor in view of the sitting MPs deathDespite her husband being the partys saving grace the widow did not get the ticket easily She had to beat some tough competition posed by the Opposition leader Vijay Wadettiwar who lobbied hard for his daughter Shivani Party insiders said the DhanorkarWadettiwar feud was expected to stay and likely to mar the partys prospects Upon getting the ticket Pratibha chose to ignore Wadettiwar even as she thanked all other senior party leaders The short shrift surely gave Wadettiwar some heartburn The Ramtek rumbleIn Ramtek reserved for the scheduled castes where the great poet Kalidasa is believed to have composed his epic poem Meghdootam the Congress faces disenchantment from the other aspirants against an official nominee Rashmi Barve Former IAS officer and the partys defeated candidate of 2019 Kishor Gajbhiye said Barves caste certificate validity was expected to be rejected by the election officers responsible for scrutinising the nomination formsBarve will take on Shinde Senas Raju Parve who was favoured over a sitting MP Krupal Tumane Parve was elected as a Congress MLA from Umred but he quit a couple of days ago to shift his loyalty to CM Eknath Shinde Barves name was cleared by the party after she was given relief by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court while hearing a petition regarding an inquiry into the charge that the former Nagpur Zilla Parishad president had forged her caste certificateGajbhiye informed reporters on Monday that he had sought permission from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to file his nomination ldquoMy nomination will serve as a dummy for the partys candidate number one Barve I will be the second candidate who will become the official one after Barversquos nomination is rejectedrdquo he said adding that his assessment was based on the experience he had gained while working as the district collector and the election officer who knew the nomination scrutiny processRepeat in GadchiroliIn the tribalspecific constituency of GadchiroliChimur the BJP has retained its twotime sitting MP Ashok Nete The Congress has fielded Dr Namdeo Kirsan Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi which took over one lakh votes last time here has not declared its candidate yetThe Maoisthit segment had upset the Congress in 2014 for the first time in decades and returned the ruling party twice thereafter The confident BJP put Nete in the fight again because it sees a winner in its development agenda The NCPAjit Pawar had also demanded the seat but the big brother stayed putBJP expects Patels chunkThe BhandaraGondia segment hogged the limelight because it had a big name like NCPrsquos Praful Patel who wields considerable influence here Patelrsquos supporters expected him to get the constituency from the BJP But Patel never seemed in that frame of mind as he took a safer Rajya Sabha route two months before the Lok Sabha polls BJP expects Patelrsquos chunk of votes to fatten its winning marginBJPs sitting MP Sunil Mendhe will be up against Congresss Dr Prashant Padole Last time Mendhe had beaten undivided NCPrsquos Nana Panchbudhe by nearly two lakh votes Mendhe a Gadkari loyalist and a staunch RSS worker was considered to be in the danger zone because former state minister Parinay Fuke had thrown his hat into the ring but didnt succeedApril 19Day first phase of voting will begin