Nagpur Constituency: Will It Be A Cakewalk For BJP? (image: twitter.com/ECISVEEP/)
Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra. The State comprises the second highest number of parliamentary seats after Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 seats. Nagpur constituency is considered as a political powerhouse for the significant influence it hold in the political scenario. Currently, Nitin Jairam Gadkari, BJP leader and Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, is the elected member from Nagpur constituency. As a sitting MP, he has been representing the constituency since 2014.
In the 2019 general election, Nagpur Constituency witnessed a tremendous battle in the political sphere, where Nitin Gadkari won the seat with a clear lead of 216009 votes, securing 660221 votes with 55.67% vote share. Meanwhile, the runner up and Congress candidate Nana Patole has received only 444212 votes with 37.45% vote share. The other candidates in the poll fray were Mohammad Jamal from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who got 31725 votes and Manohar Alias Sagar from Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA), who got 26128 votes. There were 21.61 lakh eligible voters in the 2019 election.
As Nitin Gadkari is seeking a third term in the upcoming polls, his major opponent is the local MLA and the Congress Nagpur district chief Vikas Thakre.
Nagpur, where the RSS headquarters is located, was once a Congress citadel. Since 2014 general elections through the victory of Nitin Gadkari it has been extending support to BJP. While the saffron party stresses on the infrastructure and other developments brought by Union Minister as election promises, the Congress is relying on the sectoral (Dalits, Muslims, Kunbis) factors and vote bank politics, since Vikas Thakre is an OBC candidate, and comes from the Kunbi caste.
Notably, both BJP and Congress candidates have not involved in any personal attacks so far, rather, they are focused on their own political discourses. During the campaign visit, Gadkari was asked whether the Congress candidate can pose a challenge because of his caste, he responded that “development and work matter more than caste”. Meanwhile, Vikas Thakre points to the lack of basic necessities, such as water and electricity in the several parts of Nagpur city. Besides, Congress leader asserted that the people were fed up with BJP”s politics of divide and rule in Maharashtra.
Union Minister claims that he will win by a 5 lakh margin votes, even though it”s a herculean task. In response, Congress retorted that the truth will be known after the results are declared.
Around 21% of the population in the constituency is Scheduled Castes and 9.4% is Scheduled Tribes. As per official census 2011 and population data 2024 of Nagpur district, Hindus constitutes 75.04% of Nagpur population, Buddhists and Muslims are nearly 14.36% and nearly 8.40%, respectively.
