Maharashtra Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Amravati, Wardha, Nanded - Voting for 8 seats in Phase 2

Maharashtra's eight Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls in the second phase on April 26. In the first phase on April 19, elections were held in Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara - Gondiya, Gadchiroli - Chimur, and Chandrapur. In the second phase, voting will be held in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha,
Yavatmal - Washim, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani.

The NDA - BJP and undivided Shiv Sena, had won 7 of these 8 seats in 2019. The BJP bagged Akola, Wardha, and Nanded, while its alliance partner Sena won from Buldhana, Yavatmal–Washim, Hingoli, and Parbhani. Navaneet Kaur, who has now joined the BJP, had won from Amravati in 2019 as an Independent.

In the second phase, all eyes will be on Nanded and Amravati. The Nanded Lok Sabha constituency has traditionally been a stronghold of the Congress, but after veteran leader Ashok Chavan, who represented the seat twice earlier, joined the BJP, the saffron party appears in a better position to retain the seat.

The BJP has fielded sitting MP Pratap Patil Chikhalikar against Vasant Chavan of the INDIA bloc. Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is also in the fray as it has fielded Avinash Bhosikar this time - a move that may help the saffron party as anti-BJP votes may get divided.

Nanded, located in Marathwada region, has been a strong fortress of the Congress for a long time. The district gave two chief ministers – firstly, late Shankarrao Chavan, who held the post twice from 1975 to 1977 and from 1986 to 1988, and then his son Ashok Chavan, who also held the top post two times – from 2008 to 2009 and then 2009 to 2010.

However, Ashok Chavan made his political move in February this year as he quit the grand old party and joined the ruling BJP. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a candidate of the saffron party later that month. Chavan represented the Nanded Lok Sabha seat twice – in 1987 and 2014. Nanded was one of the two seats that the Congress won in 2014 in Maharashtra, the other being Hingoli.

In 2019, however, Chikhalikar (BJP) defeated Chavan (Congress) from the Nanded seat by a margin of over 40,000 votes. VBA's Yashpal Bhinge garnered 1.66 lakh votes, which is believed to have impacted the Congress' chances. However, this time, Nanded-based veteran journalist Sanjeev Kulkarni believes that VBA may upset BJP's calculation.

Speaking to PTI, Kulkarni said: "The VBA candidate belongs to the OBC community. The OBC voters in Nanded have traditionally supported the BJP, but this time the votes may get divided."

In Amravati, Navneet Rana had defeated Shiv Sena candidate and former Union minister Anandrao Adsul in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.