BJP steady, Congress gains in Vidarbha

Even though at least 20 Congress-NCP sitting MLAs from Vidarbha lost elections this time, in the final tally Congress emerged as the
biggest party in the region with an impressive tally of 24. Its ally NCP shrunk from 11 seats in last elections to a mere four now. The BJP maintained its tally of 19 but Sena got a couple less--eight from last time’s ten. Strangely, the Congress-NCP lost six seats in Nagpur district and a lot more in the region. Prominent losers’ include ministers Anees Ahmed and Ramesh Bang, ex-minister Satish Chaturvedi, NCP’s Sulabha Khodke from Badnera, deputy speaker Pramod Shende’s son Shekhar from Wardha who lost to independent Suresh Deshmukh besides NCP’s Raju Timande from Hinganghat, Amar Kale from Arvi, Rahul Pugalia from Ballarpur.

But the combination made up with major gains in Yavatmal district where it won six of the seven seats. While minister Manohar Naik of NCP retained Pusad, Yavatmal city was won by Congress’ Nilesh Parwekar, Arni by Shivajirao Moghe, Wani by Waman Kasawar, Umarkhed by Vijayrao Kadse. The only seat it lost was Digras where Sanjay Rathod of the Sena defeated Sanjay Deshmukh of the Congress.