Team Blitz India
NAGPUR: Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, which was once a Congress stronghold, is steadily turning saffron. The region encompasses Nagpur city which is the geographical centre of India. This is also the region where there has been a demand for a separate state in the past but the situation is no longer the same.
Nagpur houses the headquarters of RSS, the ideological parent body of BJP. Vidarbha region also has Wardha, where Sevagram Ashram — the residence of Mahatma Gandhi from 1936 till his death in 1948, is situated.
Polling in Vidarbha, which accounts for 10 Lok Sabha seats of the 48 in Maharashtra, would take place during Phase-1 (19 April) and Phase-2 (26 April). Post delimitation, the number of seats has increased in Vidarbha from 8 to 10.
Pre-delimitation, in 2004 polls, the BJP got four seats and Shiv Sena three seats while Congress managed one seat. In 2009, Congress had the largest tally with four seats while its ally NCP got one. Shiv Sena and BJP got three and two seats, respectively. During the 2014 Narendra Modiwave, the Congress-NCP Democratic Front failed to open the account, while BJP won six seats and Shiv Sena four.
In the 2019 polls, the only Congress seat in the state came from Chandrapur, while BJP got five seats, Shiv Sena three and Independent / Others one. For the BJP, Nagpur is important because of RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat who has his officer here and also Road and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari who represents this constituency now. The Congress has put up sitting MLA Vikas Thakare against him.
BJP’s trouble-shooter and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule too hail from the city. The Vidarbha region has two divisional headquarters – Nagpur and Amravati, the second biggest city and business hub in the region
