Comfortable win for Tumane from Ramtek
| Date :24-May-2019 |
Krupal Tumane BJP candidate from Ramtek parliamentary constituency flashing victory sign at Kalamna Market Yard during counting process on Thursday. (Pic by Satish Raut)
Staff Reporter:
Krupal Tumane (Shiv Sena) 5,78,795
Kishor Gajbhiye
Kishor Gajbhiye (Congress) 4,56,112
A comfortable victory is in sight for Krupal Tumane from Ramtek parliamentary constituency, thus unfurling Shiv Sena’s flag in Eastern Vidarbha Region. Ramtek is the lone seat provided to Sena by big brother Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this part of region and the party did well in the election. After Subodh Mohite, now its Tumane to have gained back to back victory from Ramtek where electorate are not known to re-elect the candidates. With Tumane’s victory Shiv Sena is going to extend its hold on Ramtek that once used to be citadel of Congress Party.
It was Prakash Jadhav of Shiv Sena who first demolished Congress’ hold on the constituency. He however was unlucky as the Lok Sabha was dissolved without completing full term and thereafter the constituency got reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate. Tumane shrugged off spirited challenge from Congress Party’s candidate Kishor Gajbhiye, taking an unassailable lead of nearly 1.90 lakh votes at end of 20th round of counting that was still in progress at Kalamna Market Yard in city.
During the initial round when the margin between first two candidates, Gajbhiye and Tumane was not very wide and the race appeared to be quite a close call. However, combined power of Sena-BJP in the district and disgruntlement within Congress ranks paved the road for smooth victory of Tumane who was leading in all the assembly segments. Tumane had established a lead from very first round but Gajbhiye kept up the dogged fight and difference continued to keep up the pressure as to final outcome.
In the initial phase Gajbhiye kept up spring surprise as he continue to have slender leads in Ramtek and Kamptee constituency. But from eighth round onwards this comfort zone for Congress candidate diminished and from then onwards Tumane continued to race ahead, increasing the margin of lead in subsequent rounds. The contest was quite straight as none of the other could even come close to the top two on the ladder and they had to remain content with few hundred votes barring candidates of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.
A total of 16 candidates tested their luck from the Ramtek constituency whose spread is quite big and for any political party the seat is always a tough for campaigning and balancing all the regions. In the opening round itself, Tumane established a lead of around 6,000 that provided indication of the way things are going to shape-up. Kiran Rodge-Patankar who this time switched over to Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi could not repeat her previous best that was in 2014 elections when she had cornered nearly one lakh votes on ticket of Bahujan Samaj. During the 2019 general election she gathered around 35,000 votes only. The BSP candidate Subhash Gajbhiye cornered around 44,000 votes at the end of 20th round of counting. Since Kamptee has maximum 25 round the declaration of final result is expected only during wee hours of Friday.