ON A day of huge uncertainties, political fortunes in Vidarbha, too, much like the nation, witnessed huge reversals. After some stunning neck-to-neck fights, many unexpected and some expected outcomes, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) registered a spectacular victory in as many as 7 out of total 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of the region, where counting was held on Tuesday. Congress, which had just one MP - Balu Dhanorkar from Chandrapur - from the entire State in the elections of 2019, sailed handsomely leading in five seats in the region alone. The party registered victory on 5 seats. Mahayuti of the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde)-NCP (Ajit Pawar) combine found its fortunes take a beating even in seats it had expected to win. Strong BJP leaders like Sudhir Mungantiwar, Ramdas Tadas, Sunil Mendhe and Ashok Nete faced defeat. Victory for the alliance came from the very expected Nagpur seat, where Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was leading right from the very beginning of the counting process. Despite a good fight by Vikas Thakre of the Congress, Gadkari sailed through winning with a handsome margin.

 

Three-time MP Prataprao Jadhav of the Shiv Sena (Shinde), brought victory to the alliance from Buldhana Lok Sabha constituency, winning the election for the fourth time in a row. Akola offered another solace where BJP candidate Anup Dhotre won in a closely-contested battle. He replaces his ailing father Sanjay Dhotre who had won four elections in row. But for these three seats, the alliance was drubbed by a rejuvenated Congress and allies in the other seven seats. Chandrapur, which was the only seat won by the Congress party in the election of 2019 from the entire State, blessed the Dhanorkars again. Pratibha Dhanorkar defeated heavyweight State Minister Mungantiwar to retain the seat for her party. Amravati constituency, which had drawn quite an attention not just for the candidates but also due to high-decibel campaigning, witnessed a neck-to-neck fight between Navneet Rana fielded by the BJP and Balwant Wankhede of Congress. Though early rounds of voting saw Rana take lead, it was Wankhede who snatched victory in the dying hours of the day.

 

Another close fight was witnessed in Gondia-Bhandara constituency, where BJP’s Sunil Mendhe, despite early leads, lost to Congress’ debutant Dr Prashant Padole. Other major losses for the BJP came from Wardha, where BJP stalwart Ramdas Tadas was defeated by Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) candidate Amar Kale. NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar had himself visited Wardha and walked along with Kale as the latter filed nomintation for his party’s only seat from Vidarbha. The Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha constituency, a Shiv Sena stronghold, saw contest between two of party’s factions. Sanjay Deshmukh of the Shiv Sena (UBT) taking early lead continued it till the very end of counting defeating Rajshri Patil of Shiv Sena (Shinde). The seat had remained a Shiv Sena bastion for long. Uttamrao Patil had last won the seat for Congress in 1999.

 

Ramtek constituency also saw Congress’ Shaymkumar Barve comfortably drub Raju Parve of Shiv Sena (Shinde).

In Gadchiroli-Chimur Lok Sabha seat too, Congress’ Dr Namdeo Kirsan defeated BJP’s Ashok Nete by comfortable margin of 1.40 lakh votes. Though it was expected that the elections for the Lok Sabha seats in the region would not be as one-sided an affair as the last elections were, the Maha Vikas Aghadi wrestling the region so firmly out of the hands of Mahayuti was more than what had been expected. The parliamentary election outcome is going to force rethink of strategy by political parties as assembly election in Maharashtra are due within next two months.