Prabhag No 4, situated in North East Nagpur, is once again set to be the focus point between major political parties in the coming Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections. The prabhag witnessed clean sweep by the BJP as they won all four seats in the last election, which was held in 2017. But dynamics of winning the elections have changed. A lot of development works have been completed and still a lot needs to be done for the benefit of the residents, so there is scope for both the major political parties, namely Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC), in this election. 

 

 

 

The BJP won all four seats of the Prabhag in the previous elections. Although it had a clean sweep, BJP had to face stiff competition from INC. From Prabhag 4C, Manisha Chakradhar Atkare of the BJP won by a huge margin, capturing 49.39 per cent of the votes, beating Anjali Rajesh Samatkar in the elections. The three remaining seats were won by BJP representatives namely Niranjana Mahesh Patil of 4A by 45.18 per cent, Sheshrao Shankarrao Gotmare of 4B by 47.52 per cent, and Rajkumar Punaram Sahu of 4D by 33.62 per cent.

 

 

The prabhag has a mixed social composition of voters with a population of 60,949 which make it a densely populated urban ward. According to available data, the Prabhag includes 9,183 Scheduled Caste residents and 3,932 Scheduled Tribe residents. The ward has a large number of OBC population like the Kunbi and Teli Samaj population which can alter the power balance. Also, there are Chhattisgadi, Pawar and Sahu population residing in this ward, which can play an important role in local politics. Apart from this, the Prabhag is home to communities like Muslims, Sindhis, and an increasing number of Marwadis and North Indians, particularly in the fringe and newly-developed areas. This social diversity makes electoral calculations complex, as no single community dominates the voter base. This can pose a challenging situation for the BJP in the coming election, especially to attract youth and first time voters who have high expectations and always look for change. 

 

 

Although, all the four seats of the Prabhag are dominated by BJP representatives, there are still civic issues like that need to be closely looked in to such as the completion of roads, waste water line, municipal water pipeline, maintenance of gardens and gutters. Residents have demanded that a Government hospital should be set up to cater to poor people residing in this part of the city. Residents have complained that number of Anganwadi’s should be increased to cater to people living in this area. Apart from this, there are parts of the area that get drinking water by tankers. These residents should get water through NMC pipeline on urgent basis. Residents also complain that development has been uneven and largely limited to selected areas.