The saffron alliance was in the lead in nine out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha. Congress was in the lead in Chandrapur with Suresh Narayan Dhanorkar alias Balubhau leading against BJP’s Hansraj Ahir by 4,265 votes. Mr. Ahir had won the seat in 2014 by defeating the Congress candidate with a margin of 2,36,269 votes.
As many as seven to eight talukas of Chandrapur are Naxal-affected and the red cadre had given a call to boycott the elections. There was also a wave of anti-incumbency after Chandrapur was declared a dry zone along with two other districts — Wardha and Gadchiroli-Chimur.
In Amravati, 71-year old two-time sitting Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul was in the lead against 34-year-old actor and independent candidate Navneet Rana by a margin of 4,830 votes. In Yavatmal-Washim, Shiv Sena’s Bhavana Gawali was in the lead by 18,268 votes against Congress’ Manikrao Thakre.
In Nagpur, BJP’s Nitin Gadkari was in the lead against Congress’ Nana Patole by 51,506 votes.
Constituency- Leading party (As on 1 pm)
Wardha — BJP
Ramtek — Shiv Sena
Nagpur — BJP
Bhandara-Gondiya — BJP
Gadchiroli-Chimur — BJP
Chandrapur — Congress
Yavatmal-Washim — Shiv Sena
Buldhana — Shiv Sena
Akola — BJP
Amravati — Shiv Sena
