The ruling BJP is battling hard to retain its stronghold over Vidarbha where it had swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, while the Congress has little to lose but everything to gain, as half of the ten constituencies in the region go to elections in the first phase on Friday.
With no apparent wave in the air and not much of enthusiasm witnessed among voters, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to cash in on Ram Mandir temple issue and use its organisational strength to reach out to voters in the five poll-bound constituencies — Nagpur, Ramtek (SC), Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya and Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) — in the region.
The BJP is also hoping that the two rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — one each at Chandrapur and Ramtek and a rally addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Bhandara-Gondia may bring dividends to it in the polls.
Confident of doing well in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress is banking heavily on the under-currents of anti-incumbency, caste arithmetic of Dalits, Muslims and Kunbi community and the strength of its local leaders. Congress' leader Rahul Gandhi and its current president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed one rally each at Bhandara-Gondia and Napgur respectively.
All the same, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole has gone to town saying that his party will bag all the five seats in the first phase of polling due to the "massive anger" nursed by the people against the Narendra Modi Government.
Incidentally, Vidarbha region was once the bastion of the Congress, before the BJP dislodged its position and took full control of the region, also known as eastern Maharashtra.
Of the total 10 Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha, the BJP had -- in the 2019 polls-- had walked away with nine seats - including the one seat (Amravati) wrested by actress-turned-politician Navnit Ravi Rana who joined the BJP subsequently, while the managed just one seat - that of Chandrapur.
From among the five seats - for which elections are being held on Friday, the BJP bad bagged three seats - Gadchiroli-Chimur, Bhandara-Gondia and Nagpur, while its then ally Shiv Sena had won Ramtek seat and the Congress had managed to win Chandrapur seats.
In the current elections, direct contests are being witnessed in four out of the five constituencies.
Two-time sitting MP and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is sitting pretty and is confident of scoring a hat trick in the orange city of Nagpur where he is taking on Congress Vikas Thakre, who is an MLA from Nagpur West and a former Mayor and whose candidature is being supported by the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).
Nagpur being the headquarters of RSS and he being close to its chief Mohan Bhagwat, Gadkari has everything going in for him in the orange city which is the home turf of the BJP and also the home town of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Considered the "Development Man", Gadkari is popular among sections of voters in Nagpur, including Muslims. He had won by a huge margin of 2.16 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls against the Congress' Nana Patole, who is currently the State Congress president.
In Chandrapur which was the only seat that the Congress had won, the Congress has nominated Pratibha Dhanorkar, the widow of late sitting MP Suresh Narayan Dhanorkar alias Balubhau alias Balu Dhanorkar, against Maharashtra's Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, a six time MLA and a former State BJP president.
In the neighbouring naxalite-belt of Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) seat, the BJP has re-nominated Ashok Nete against Gandhian scholar Namdeo Kirsan of the Congress. Senior Congress leader and current leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar is throwing everything into the campaign to ensure the victory of his party's candidate.
In Bhandara-Gondiya, sitting BJP MP Sunil Mendhe is taking on Dr Prashant Padole of the Congress, who enjoys goodwill in the constituency. A first-timer, he is a distant relative of State Congress chief Nana Patole.
In Ramtek (SC), the Congress has put up Shyamkumar Barve, a loyalist of local party leader Sunil Kedar, as its candidate against the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena nominee Raju Parve.
Parve recently resigned from the Congress and joined the Shiv Sena in presence of Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
