Congress claims huge response to rallies across Nagpur

NAGPUR: The Congress camp was upbeat on Monday claiming that its campaign in the city had received overwhelming response in North Nagpur as well as in East, West and South. On Monday, in East Nagpur, a vehicle-rally for Congress candidate Abhijeet Wanjari stretched for over a kilometre. Wanjari is challenging BJP's sitting MLA Krishna Khopde here.
"We planned for 1,000 two-wheelers and 50 cars.But supporters joined voluntarily and it led to a massive jam on NH7 and all busy roads in the business district so much so that the police had a tough time controlling it," said a Wanjari aide.
"Even Raj Babbar who joined the rally halfway through was astounded and said he had never seen such a huge rally. More than 2,300 two-wheelers and over 230 cars joined the procession, three times more than what Khopde had organized a day earlier," he said.
For the Congress, which started on a weak note, situation improved drastically in South Nagpur, where veteran Satish Chaturvedi surged way ahead of rivals Kiran Pandav of the Shiv Sena and Dinanath Padole who has now switched over to the NCP. In West Nagpur, Vikas Thakre who looked very strong at the start of the campaign now faces a tough fight with BJP's Sudhakar Deshmukh getting his act together at the last minute.
In North Nagpur, Nitin Raut of the Congress looked very confident as he wound up the campaign. The BJP has fielded a newcomer Dr Milind Mane who has a good public image as social worker. "We are confident of winning at least three seats in Nagpur city," said Congress leader and ex-MP Vilas Muttemwar.
NCP looks weak even on its turf
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is contesting the state elections, for the first time in 15 years, on its own in the city. All these years, it had only got to contest municipal corporation elections here. So it had to select candidates from the civic level leaders. Of the six seats in Nagpur, the NCP is not in a position to reach the winning post anywhere. So desperate it was that in South Nagpur it gave ticket to Congress rebel Dinanath Padole who tried very hard but lagged behind in the campaign.
In West Nagpur, NCP city President Ajay Patil's wife and corporator Pragati Patil is the candidate. If she is lucky, she may get the fourth place after MNS debutant Prashant Pawar.
After the split, the NCP seems to have lost the way in the entire Vidarbha. Not only in Nagpur but also in the party's stronghold of Katol and Pusad, it is not very comfortably poised. In Katol, NCP's four-term winner Anil Deshmukh is facing a tough time containing nephew Ashish Deshmukh of the BJP whose father Ranjeet Deshmukh left the Congress to campaign for son. In Pusad, too, Manohar Naik is not on a strong wicket while in Hingna, ex-minister Ramesh Bang, is slightly better against BJP newcomer Sameer Meghe. The NCP may not be able to retain the tally of four seats it bagged in Vidarbha in 2009.