Lok Sabha polls: BJP comfortable in Vidarbha, Shiv Sena and Congress tense

NAGPUR: Vidarbha Maharashtra — once a Congress bastion — is expected to give mixed results once again, as campaigning for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the region came to an end on Tuesday.

In the last parliamentary polls, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine had made major inroads into this agricultural region, which has become notorious for farmer suicides in recent times, by winning five seats.

This time, the BJP is expected to improve its tally in Vidarbha from existing two seats on the back of Narendra Modi’s popularity as well as anti-incumbency against the UPA government in the Centre and Congress-Nationalist Congress Party rule in the state. But the Shiv Sena may struggle to hold on to its three seats partly because Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ( MNS) is expected to cut into its vote base.

“The Congress-NCP combine would be routed during these elections from Vidarbha,” said Kishore Tiwari of farmers advocacy group Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS). “The Shiv Sena-BJP will gain a lot of ground in this region as farmers are angry that the government didn’t even give them any compensation after the hail storm,” he said. The down swing in the Congress fortunes s expected to start from Nagpur, the largest city in Vidarbha, where former BJP president Nitin Gadkari is taking on seven-time MP Vilas Muttemwar. A lot of people in the area expect Gadkari to end Congress’ dominance in the constituency.

Nagpur is not the only hitherto ‘safe seat’ that the Congress-NCP combine is not sure of this time. NCP leader Praful Patel, who won the last elections with a margin of more than 2.51 lakh votes, is expected to face a tough challenge from BJP’s Nana Patole.

Congress defends four LS seats in Vidarbha while its partner NCP has one. In Gadchiroli-Chimur, the Congress seems to have shot itself in the foot after it denied ticket to sitting MP Marotrao Kowase and opted for local MLA Namdeo Usendi. A miffed Kowase is likely to damage Usendi’s chances. The BJP has once again fielded Ashok Nete who lost by 28,000 votes last time.

In Ramtek, Congress MP Mukul Wasnik is facing a tough battle against Sena’s Kripal Tumane whom Wasnik beat with a slender margin of 16,000 votes last polls. In Wardha, internal squabbles forced the Congress to deny ticket to sitting MP Datta Meghe and instead give it to his son Sagar Meghe. It is expected to be a close contest.

BJP candidate Ramdas Tadas belongs to the same ‘Teli’ community of Modi who has addressed a rally in Wardha. However, Meghe is expected to scrape through.