After 25 Years, Congress Fields Its Candidate Prasanth Padole From Bhandara–Gondiya (Photo on X Dr. Prashant Padole @_Prashantpadole)Bhandara–Gondiya Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 48 seats in Maharashtra and the Congress has fielded Dr Prasanth Yadavrao Padole from the constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. A doctor, who graduated from Ukraine, Mr Padole made his electoral debut during the 2014 assembly elections. Mr Padole had unsuccessfully contested as a Shiv Sena candidate from the Sakoli assembly seat.
The BJP has decided to field the sitting MP Sunil Baburao Mendhe who won the 2019 elections from the seat. In 2014, the then BJP candidate Nana Patole secured the Bhandara–Gondiya constituency, ending decades of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) dominance in the seat. Sunil Baburao Mendhe of BJP then retained the seat in the 2019 general elections with more than one lakh majority.
Notably, Congress is fielding a candidate from the constituency after 25 years. Congress has been an alliance partner with the undivided NCP led by Sharad Pawar, with former union minister Praful Patel being the major face of the Congress-NCP alliance in the constituency. However, after the split in NCP, Praful Patel joined hands with Ajit Pawar’s faction which is in alliance with the ruling Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Reportedly, Congress State President Nana Patole was considered for the seat as he was presumed to be a stronger candidate to confront the sitting BJP MP, but Patole stayed away citing his responsibility to the party in the state. Then the Congress decided to field Padole who is also a distant relative of Patole. As Praful Patel joined the Ajit Pawar faction, the NCP was considered weak in the seat and hence the Congress is heading the fight against the BJP in the seat. After Praful Patel switched to NCP from Congress in 1999, the Chandra-Gondia constituency’s battle was between the NCP and the BJP.
Praful Patel had represented the seat as a Congress MP in 1991, 1996 and 1998, and later, as an undivided NCP MP, he represented the constituency in 2009. In 2014, Patel lost to then BJP’s Nana Patole. In 2017, Patole left the BJP, raising dissent against the Modi government’s policies.
In earlier decades namely, from 1951 to 1998, the seat was dominated by the Congress and the party has hope this time that it can regain the vote base by conducting aggressive campaigning in the constituency.