Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections 2024: Important candidates and seats in the second round

Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections 2024: Important candidates and seats in the second round

Maharashtra Lok Sabha Polls: Seven seats, three from the Marathwada area and five from Vidarbha, will be up for grabs in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, which begins on April 26. The BJP is fighting for four seats, while the governing Shiv Sena is vying for three. Under Ajit Pawar's direction, the NCP has given its lone seat to the RSP, an ally.

Voting for the 48 members of the Maharashtra Lok Sabha will take place in five parts this year, from April 19 to May 20, with Mumbai residents casting their ballots on May 20. Voting in five Vidarbha constituencies—Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondia, Gadchiroli-Chimur, and Chandrapur—took place in the first phase on April 19. On April 26, eight seats in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions—Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Yavatmal Washim, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani—will cast ballots in the second round of the election.

Notably, Maharashtra had four stages of voting in the latest Lok Sabha election in 2019 as opposed to three phases in 2014.

Three seats are from the Marathwada area and five are from Vidarbha out of the eight Lok Sabha seats. The BJP is seeking for four seats in these constituencies, while the governing Shiv Sena is running for three. Ajit Pawar's National Congress Party (NCP) has, in the meanwhile, given its lone seat to its partner, the Rashtriya Samaj Party (RSP). The Congress will contest three seats, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will contest four, and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) will contest one seat in the opposition.

For the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi and the governing coalition, the eight seats provide a diverse bag of experiences. But in the second phase, the seats in Nanded and Amravati are the focus. The Congress has always had support in the Nanded constituency. But now that the twice-elected senior politician Ashok Chavan has joined the BJP, the saffron party seems to have a good chance of holding onto the seat.

Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan is doing all in his power to ensure Prataprao Govindrao Chikhalikar Patil's win in the Nanded Lok Sabha seat, his local stronghold. He is approaching the election as if it were his own. Chavan, a well-known state Congressman and former chief minister, just joined the BJP in February, which complicated his attempts to allay any "anti-incumbency" feelings against Patil.

The recent verdict by the Supreme Court, which validated Navneet Rana's caste certificate, hours prior to her nomination file from Amravati, offers a sense of solace to the BJP in the face of mounting opposition. Even with this judicial victory, political figures from all sides are opposing Rana, which might hurt her chances of winning an election. Analysts, however, believe that Anandraj Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, may change the political scene in Rana's favor. The expectation is that Ambedkar's nomination will cause votes to go to Rana rather than the Congress. In other Vidarbha seats like Akola and Wardha, where the BJP has a strong voter base, the party is well-positioned to preserve its lead over the Congress.

Experts claim that the next second phase would serve as a crucial litmus test for Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who is struggling to keep the Shiv Sena together in the face of recent candidate substitutions that the saffron party has ordered.

The election between Prataprao Jadhav of the Shiv Sena and Narendra Khedekar of the Shiv Sena-UBT is about to take place in the Buldhana constituency.

Following a mutiny inside the party, Jadhav, a three-time member of the Lok Sabha, has shifted his allegiance to Eknath Shinde's group within the Shiv Sena. Even though Jadhav wants to serve a fourth term in the Lok Sabha, the division within the governing coalition puts obstacles in his way.

As an opposition candidate, the Uddhav Sena has put forth Narendra Khedekar, a devoted follower of Thackeray and a former leader of the Zilla Parishad. Khedekar, who was not given a ticket to run in the 2019 assembly elections, is now a prominent candidate for the Buldhana seat.

In spite of disagreements both within the party and among its supporters, the BJP has decided to run Navneet Rana, the current Lok Sabha MP. After the outcome of the 2019 elections, Rana—who had support from the Congress and NCP as an independent candidate—decayed to the BJP. Significantly, the Congress has selected Balwant Wankhede, the current Daryapur MLA, as its candidate. The Congress now controls three of the six MLAs in this seat. Moreover, the Prahar party, under the leadership of MLA Bachchu Kadu and affiliated with the NDA, has declared its nomination as Dinesh Boob, publicly opposing Rana's.

The party has confirmed Sanjay Jadhav, the incumbent Shiv Sena UBT MP who is well-known for his unshakable commitment to Uddhav Thackeray, as its candidate, despite the increased polarization in the Parbhani Lok Sabha constituency. The governing coalition made this choice after giving the seat to the Ajit Pawar-led National Congress Party, whose candidate is Mahadev Jankar, a community leader from Dhangar.

The main contenders in the Akola constituency are Prakash Yashwant Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi, Abhay Kashinath Patil of the Congress, and Anup Sanjay Dhotre of the BJP.

The BJP has won every time it has tried to win the Akola Lok Sabha seat since 2004. Ironically, however, accusations of parivarwad might provide a barrier to their quest for a fifth straight victory. The accusation stems from the governing party's choice to nominate Anup Dhotre, who is the son of four-term Member of Parliament Sanjay Dhotre, hence perhaps impeding the party's chances of winning elections.

Ramdas Tadas, a two-term member of the Lok Sabha, is hoping to win three straight terms by taking advantage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity and the constituency's Teli community's support. Amar Kale, a former Congress MLA, surprised everyone by joining the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, however. Given that the NCP-SP alliance is fielding Kale rather than the embattled Congress and that a new, young, and pure Kunbi candidate has emerged, the BJP faces a serious threat in this race.