Chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, cast his vote in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections polls on Friday in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
After casting his vote, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat showed his inked finger.
He urged everyone to use their right to vote, saying “Voting is our duty, our right. There should be 100 per cent polling. I have cast my vote.”
The first phase of the Lok Sabha elections of 2024 marked the opening of polls in 102 parliamentary constituencies located in 21 states and Union Territories at 7:00 am on Friday. The polls close at 6:00 p.m.
Maharashtra, which is the second-largest state in terms of population after Uttar Pradesh, holds significant political importance with 48 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 543. The upcoming elections in Maharashtra are expected to be fiercely contested between two major political coalitions: the Mahayuti coalition consisting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP).
Five specific Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra will be closely watched during the elections: Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Ramtek, and Nagpur. These constituencies are expected to play a crucial role in determining the overall outcome of the electoral contest in the state.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party secured only one seat, Chandrapur, out of Maharashtra’s total 48 seats. However, this time around, the competition is expected to be tough as the BJP is putting in significant effort to regain the constituency. The BJP has nominated a state minister from Chandrapur, indicating a strong bid to recapture the seat.
On the Congress side, Pratibha Dhanorkar, widow of the late Suresh alias Balu Dhanorkar, is contesting. Meanwhile, the BJP has chosen Sudhir Mungantiwar, the current Minister of Forests and Cultural Affairs in the state, as its candidate.
In Ramtek, which is the only seat contested by the Shiv Sena led by Shinde in the initial phase of the general elections on April 19, the Congress, part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, has nominated Shyamkumar Dault Barve.
Moving to Gadchiroli-Chimur, the largest Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra in terms of area and plagued by Naxal violence, Congress has fielded Namdeo Dasaram Kirsan against BJP’s Ashok Mahadeorao Nete, the incumbent MP who won the seat in 2014 and 2019.
Nete was previously defeated by Marotrao Kovase of the Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. However, Nete has been successful in winning state assembly elections from the Gadchiroli seat twice before, in 1999 and 2004.
Maharashtra holds immense electoral significance with its 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second-largest after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in alliance with Shiv Sena. The upcoming elections in Maharashtra will be conducted in five phases, with the results scheduled to be announced on June 4.