After ten days of the declaration of the name of the sitting MP Pratap Patil Chikhalikar by the BJP for the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency, Congress has revealed its candidate. Former MLA Vasantrao Chavan will contest as the Congress candidate from Nanded. Suspense had prevailed over the Congress party candidate for the past many days, and it has been unveiled now. Hence, there will be a direct fight between BJP and Congress for the Lok Sabha seat.
Nanded Lok Sabha constituency has six assembly constituencies, namely Nanded South, Nanded North, Bhokar, Naigaon, Deglur, and Mukhed. These constituencies have a domination of Maratha, Lingayat, and Banjara voters. The Dalit and Muslim votes are always decisive during the elections here. There are 18,36,464 voters in Nanded LS constituency, which includes 34,937 first-time voters. All the political parties are trying to attract the voters in each and every village and tanda of the constituency.
The Maratha quota agitation has been gaining momentum in the state for the past few months, and it will have a severe impact on the elections, the political experts opined. The Maratha community is demanding reservation from the OBC category, but the OBC communities are opposing their demand, stressing that the Marathas should be given separate reservation instead. Hence, the OBC voters will be reluctant to vote for any Maratha candidate, and hence Chikhalikar and Congress candidate Vasantrao Chavan both may face a severe setback.
Under these circumstances, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has not yet taken a clear stand. If it goes with the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Congress candidate may get the support from VBA and hence, the backing from Dalit, OBC, and Muslim voters. However, if the AIMIM fields its independent candidate, the Muslim votes can get divided, the experts said.
