Gadkari repeats spectacular performance
| Date :24-May-2019 |
Nitin Gadkari waiving to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters on Thursday who thronged his residence at Hill Road, Ram Nagar, to congratulate him on spectacular victory in Lok Sabha election. (Pic by Satish Raut)
Staff Reporter:
Nitin Gadkari (BJP) 6,57,624
Nana Patole (Congress) 4,42,765
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari delivered yet another spectacular performance and won Nagpur seat of Lok Sabha for second consecutive term. He trounced his rival Congress candidate Nana Patole in straight fight. Gadkari assumed unassailable lead of 2,14,859, as per the figures available at 2 am. He went to Kalamna market yard and received the certificate of winning the election from Ashwin Mudgal, District Collector and Returning Officer.
Gadkari was favourite from the start and it was indicated when postal ballots were counted where Gadkari straightway took the lead of around 4,000 votes after first round. From there on the road for Gadkari was quite clear as there was no looking back as he increased his lead after each of the rounds. When Gadkari took lead of nearly one lakh it was clear that he is going to stamp seal of victory in his inimitable style. There was heavy police bandobast at Kalamna Yard of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC). A three layered security was in place to ensure peaceful counting. Nana Patole tried to put up a tough fight and also turned-up at the counting venue during the afternoon. He again tried to put election machinery in dock on ground of some minor issues that erupted during the counting. Patole met Returning Officer and District Collector Ashwin Mudgal and orally put across his views about some shortcomings during the counting process. Later talking to newspersons, Patole tried to put up a brave face saying till last vote was counted he would not throw his towel in the ring. But the writing was clear on the wall as Gadkari’s lead continued to increase after each round of counting and victory was in sight leaving little for Patole to hang on to.
As lead figures swelled on, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers who were present in sizeable numbers were grinning ear to ear. Senior leaders also thronged the counting venue to get first hand information about the lead of Gadkari. His victory was never in doubt.The only curiosity was the margin he would register against Patole who had managed to unite faction ridden Congress in city. Despite patching by all the camps, the electorate gave their verdict and reposed faith in the leadership of Gadkari whose vision and speed of development has left an inedible mark all over the country. And Nagpur city and entire Vidarbha region made a windfall of gains as Gadkari pulled out all stops to invest in infrastructure projects and rollout out modern amenities.
Meanwhile at the counting venue, Congress camp wore a dejected look as margin of votes between increased manifold making come back of Patole almost impossible. In between round 10 to 14 the margin of Gadkari decreased indicating inroads on part of Congress in some pockets. By 11 pm the victory margin of Gadkari had increased to 2,13,127 and his vote share was 55.67 per cent as against 4,39,114 polled by Patole with vote share of 37.48 per cent.
The other candidate who did manage to impress in between these two leading contenders were Sagar Manohar alias Sagar Dabrase who managed to get over 25,000 votes despite having little election machinery at his disposal. He had contested on Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s platform floated by Adv Prakash Ambedkar. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nominee Mohammad Jamal, a sitting corporator, was at third place with mere 31,267 votes only. This is the worst ever performance of BSP in last few elections an indication of party’s lost ground owing to multiple factors, notably dedicate cadre bidding good-bye to party after internal squabbles. Dr Suresh Mane who was fielded by pro-Vidarbha group could not make any waves as he polled just over 3,000 votes at end of 20th round. The issue of separate Vidarbha state failed to click even remotely among the voters as is indicated by votes polled by Dr Mane. NOTA: The impact of NOTA was not very effective but it did attract attention in the general elections. Till the ninth round the maximum number of NOTA were in seventh round, it was 865 votes among the 68,125 valid votes counted.Also in fifth round 117 and in fourth 105 NOTA were counted and 138 during second round.
India set to become superpower: Gadkari
Staff Reporter:
Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, was a happy man on Thursday. He had a reason to be. For, he had retained Nagpur seat for him and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a big margin of around 2,00,000 votes by the evening, and the final figures were still awaited. Talking to mediapersons at his residence in Ram Nagar, before leaving for New Delhi, Gadkari expressed happiness and said that India was set to become a superpower now. Nationally, BJP and allies were leading on around 350 out of total 542 seats.
Though the final figures were awaited, it became clear that BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was all set to come to power for second term. Gadkari described development works carried out by the NDA Government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘unparalleled’ in the last 50 years. While India would become a superpower in years to come, the second-time Government under Modi would take up several initiatives for welfare and progress of farmers, labourers, and youths, he said. Earlier in the day, Sharad Pawar, NCP chief, had told mediapersons that he respected the people’s mandate but also remarked that allegations regarding electronic voting machines could not be ruled out. Commenting on this, Gadkari said, “It appears that some leaders are yet to come to terms with their defeat.
There are some other leaders who raise doubts about electronic voting machines only when they stand defeated.” One party got the opportunity to be in power while others had to play the role of the Opposition in democracy, he added. As far as his own performance was concerned, Gadkari said that the people had given a clear mandate based upon the developmental push he could give to the city of Nagpur in the past five years. “Those who could not contribute to developmental process, tried to base their campaign on caste and such dividing factors. Those who have development agenda, do not need to campaign on caste lines,” he quipped. During a recent television debate Nana Patole, Congress candidate, had announced that he would retire from politics if he lost the poll battle in Nagpur. Asked about this, Gadkari advised him not to retire from politics. “There is no need for one to retire from politics, as winning or losing an election is part of the game,” added Gadkari.
The former National President of BJP dubbed as ‘wrong’ the Congress campaign that focussed on targeting the Prime Minister. He said, “They called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a ‘Chor’ (thief). It was wrong. They should have realised that once a person becomes Prime Minister, he represents the nation and he must be respected.” Also, he said, people had rejected the Congress campaign and expressed faith in Modi. The people have given one more opportunity to BJP to lead the nation and work for its all-round development. Replying to a question, Gadkari, who also has Water Resources portfolio as Union Minister, proposed to work on the plan for creating a ‘WaterGrid’ on the lines of powergrid. Also, he would focus on water scarcity situation prevailing in Vidarbha region and other parts of Maharashtra. To address the water woes with long-term vision, over 130 irrigation projects in the State would be completed in next one-and-a-half years.