As expected, Nitin Gadkari of Bharatiya Janata Party (Mahayuti), the candidate for Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency proved to be shining star as he defeated his nearest rival Vikas Thakre of Congress (Maha Vikas Aaghadi) and registered a winning hat-trick. Though the tall claims made by BJP about Gadkari’s victory margin could not be achieved, one can’t forget his third victory in a row from the same constituency. He won this election by a margin of 1,37,603 votes at the end of 20th round. Gadkari secured 6,55,027 votes while Thakre could garner 5,17,424 votes. The fight turned out to be one to one between heavyweight Gadkari and his opponent Vikas Thakre. The only creditable factor for Congress during this year’s parliamentary election from Nagpur was that Thakre managed to reduce the winning margin drastically as compared to the margin registered in 2019. Gadkari has been winning the polls since 2014 and the lead is getting reduced. In 2014, when BJP fielded Nitin Gadkari, nobody had imagined he would win. But he defeated the 7-time MP Vilas Muttemwar by a margin of 2,84,828 votes. The lead was reduced in 2019 when Gadkari defeated Nana Patole by 2.16 lakh plus votes. This time Thakre further reduced the lead drastically.

 

Nagpur always remained a stronghold of Congress for several years. Banwarilal Purohit is the first person that shattered Congress’ record when he won in 1996 on BJP ticket. In the year 2004 and in 2009, Vilas Muttemwar won the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat. In last 10 years, Gadkari succeeded in establishing the commanding position over Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency. When the election was declared this year and BJP announced name of Gadkari as its candidate, nobody from Congress showed willingness to contest. Local Congress leaders finally chose Vikas Thakre, present West Nagpur MLA and City Congress President. Nagpur witnessed the unity among all leaders of Congress for the first time. They all stood with Thakre which was a plus point.

 

Gadkari was leading right from first round till the last. He secured lead of 11,675 in the first round and that lead kept on increasing though slowly except in Round number 7. There was a fluctuation in the margin during seventh round. For example, the rise was constant till round 6 when Gadkari was leading by 43,958 votes. It went down in seventh round when Gadkari’s margin stood at 40,924. After seventh round, the lead went on rising. Like last election, Congress Party has managed to make its mark in Nagpur North Assembly constituency as Thakre secured lead over his formidable rival Nitin Gadkari. This time also, Congress gained over BJP. In all other assembly segments, Gadkari managed to showcase his prowess. Congress banked on Central Nagpur. Central Nagpur had witnessed lowest voting per cent of all the six constituencies. It was speculated that Congress could garner support of Halba community at large. The assumption by the people proved wrong.

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