Campaigning ends for Phase-2’s 8 Maharashtra seats, polls on Friday

Nagpur/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Before the dust settled on Wednesday on the last day of phase 2 poll campaigning for eight seats in Maharashtra, key rivals unleashed direct attacks on each other, while aligning speeches with their core ideology.

Departing from phase 1 campaigning, where the narrative hovered around development and manifestos, Congress went full throttle against PM Narendra Modi, while BJP’s messaging showed strong shades of saffron in this phase.
Over 1.5 crore electors will seal the fate on Friday of 204 contestants in the five seats of Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim in western Vidarbha and three constituencies of droughtprone Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani in Marathwada.

In the final hours, Amravati district saw high-voltage campaigning, with top names from both parties rallying the masses—Congress’s Rahul Gandhi addressed crowds in Parathwada, while BJP’s Amit Shah was in Amravati city. Gandhi called Modi’s policies more “corporate friendly” and harmful for the common man, while Shah urged voters to choose “Ram Rajya” while casting their votes.

Phase 2 campaigning was high-pitched because of high stakes. This round of polling will be crucial not only for the political careers of a few, but also the Sena factions’ legacy.

In Nanded, former Congress CM Ashok Chavan, who switched loyalties to BJP, went all out to ensure a win for his former rival Prataprao Chikhalikar, who is seeking another term.

Hingoli has thrown up a triangular fight among Sena (UBT) candidate Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Sena nominee Baburao Kadam Kohalikar and VBA’s B D Chavan. Sena had to withdraw its first pick, sitting MP Hemant Patil, when the local BJP unit protested and CM Eknath Shinde nominated Kohalikar.

Another triangular fight looms in Parbhani. Sena (UBT) candidate and incumbent MP Sanjay alias Bandu Jadhav, who is seeking another term, will go up against Mahayuti’s Rashtriya Samaj Paksha president Mahadev Jankar and VBA pick Panjabrao Dakh, a prominent face in the farming community.

BJP candidates Navneet Rana (Amravati) and Anup Dhotre (Akola) are fighting for political survival because a defeat could mean obscurity, considering the infighting in Mahayuti. In Amravati, Ranabaiter Bacchu Kadu, too, wagered his all by going up against the might of Mahayuti, even though he is with it.

In Akola, Dhotre is fighting to hold onto his father Sanjay Dhotre’s legacy as four-time MP. Congress’s Dr Abhay Patil, a known name in the Maratha community, kept his poll campaign focused on development. VBA chief and candidate Prakash Ambedkar’s campaign kept the guns trained on BJP and Congress to hold on to the core vote bank and wean fence-sitters.

In Yavatmal-Washim and Buldhana, it’s a do-or-die bat-tle for both the Sena factions as they stake claim to their strongest bastions in Vidarbha. Both Sena MPs from these constituencies joined the Shindeled faction, and the election campaign hinged on an emotional appeal to voters. Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Shinde liberally used the word “traitor” to strike achord with voters. Both factions went all guns blazing as a defeat there may potentially end their hold over Vidarbha.

Wardha’s BJP candidate Ramdas Tadas denounced his daughter-in-law, Pooja, an independent. MVA’s Amar Kale, three-time Congress MLA, shifted to NCP because the party landed the seat.

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