Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday filed his nomination as a BJP candidate for the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, and expressed confidence that the NDA government will continue to be in power at the Centre. Before filing the nomination paper, Gadkari took out a roadshow in the city, where Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel were present with him. Addressing a gathering before filing the nomination, Gadkari said, “With people’s blessings, the NDA government will retain power under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. Maharashtra will see a huge development under the leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CMs Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.” “We have to make India ‘vishwa guru’ under PM Modi’s leadership and turn it into a happy and prosperous nation,” he said. The Minister of Road Transport and Highways said he carried out works worth Rs one lakh crore in Nagpur, and the credit goes to the party workers. He said he gave a push to the Multi-Model International Passenger and Cargo Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), created job opportunities for the youth and built roads and flyovers to improve infrastructure in the district. Gadkari urged people to come out in large numbers to cast their vote so that Nagpur sees 75 per cent voter turnout, and also appealed them to ensure that he wins by a margin of five lakh votes.
Gadkari has been representing the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat since the last two terms. He fought his first Lok Sabha election in 2014 from the seat against seven-time Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar and defeated him by a margin of 2,85,000 votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gadkari defeated Congress candidate Nana Patole, who is now the Maharashtra unit chief of the grand old party, by a margin of 2,16,000 votes. Patole was earlier a BJP MP from Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha seat.
But he left the BJP and joined the Congress, following which he was pitted against Gadkari. However, Gadkari registered a comfortable victory by securing 6,60,221 votes, while Patole bagged 4,44,212 votes.
Addressing the gathering, Fadnavis said India achieved development thanks to the works undertaken by PM Modi and Gadkari. He also said the country will witness many more positive changes in the next 10 years.
At the time of Gadkari’s filing of nomination at the Nagpur district collectorate, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was present along with Fadnavis and Patel. CM Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s candidate from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency in Nagpur, Raju Parwe, also filed his nomination paper at the same office.
