Sagar Meghe, the son of the sitting Congress MP from Wardha Datta Meghe, won the primary from here on Sunday by just 46 votes to emerge as Congress candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.
The losing candidate was Charulata Tokas, daughter of the former Maharashtra Congress chief Prabha Rau. This is among the first few seats where the party has held a U.S. style primary with the aim of selecting candidates democratically.
However, both candidates were the kin of influential party leaders. The contest saw major lobbying and campaigning from both the families.
“Mr. Sagar Meghe received 600 votes and his rival Mrs. Tokas received 554 votes out of the 1180 votes polled. Twenty-six votes were declared invalid. We have sent this result to central election committee,” Kunal Bannerjee, the election officer of the Wardha primary seat, told The Hindu.
Initially, the primary was to be held in the neighbouring constituency Yavatmal-Washim. It was later shifted to Wardha at the last minute, a move criticised by Mr. Datta Meghe who wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
After his son’s victory, he changed his mind.The BJP has declared Ramdas Tadas its candidate for the Wardha seat.
