There was a time when Nagpur Lok Sabha polls used to witness third front impact. There are several fights in the constituency which were triangular ones. The winner had to face tough battle. For example in 1967, Congress candidate Narendra Deoghare won the Nagpur polls defeating A B Bardhan of Communist Party of India when N L Bele and Madhav Aney of Vidarbha movement were in the run. Now, number of Independent candidates contesting polls has increased which is reducing the impact of the so-called third front. Apart from rise in number of independents, more candidates are contesting from new smaller parties. In the past with candidates like A B Bardhan, Communist Party had a larger impact. Later on, Forward Bloc which fielded Lion of Vidarbha Jambuvantrao Dhote, acted as third front creating problem for main parties like Jansangh, Janata Party and Congress. In recent times, Bahujan Samaj Party too gave tough fight. In 2004, BSP candidate Jayant Dalvi managed to clinch only 57,027 votes when Vilas Muttemwar of Congress defeated Atal Bahadur Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party by over one lakh votes. But in 2009, BSP’s Manikrao Vaidya garnered 1,18,741 votes when again, Congress’s Vilas Muttemwar won.

 

Obviously Vaidya’s votes were those of Congress. From 2014, the impact of third front started reducing because of rising number of Independents and some smaller parties fielding candidates. In 2014, BSP’s Dr Mohan Gaikwad secured a whopping 96,433 votes. At the same time, some candidates contested polls on the ticket of parties including Aam Aadmi Party, Ambedkar Party of India, Gondwana Gantantra Party, Democratic Secular Party, Bahujan Mukti Party, Janata Dal (United), Hindustan Janata Party etc. The number of Independents was 20. Nitin Gadkari won the election by over 2.5 lakh votes. In 2019, total 13 candidates contested Nagpur Lok Sabha polls as Independents. The impact of so-called third front started reducing from 2004. In 2019, there was a clear fight between Nitin Gadkari and Nana Patole (Congress) where the former won by a margin of over 2 lakh votes. Some local parties like Chhattisgarh Swabhiman Manch, Hum Bharatiya Party, Rashtriya Jan Sambhavna Party, Akhil Bharatiya Manavta Paksh, Bharatiya Manavadhikar Federal Party and Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi were added to the list of parties contesting Lok Sabha polls in 2019.