With battlelines drawn up for the January 15 elections of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as Congress Party have taken into consideration people of the Prabhag while deciding their respective nominees. Located in South Nagpur Assembly segment of city, the ruling BJP did not want to take any changes. Hence they replaced all the four previously elected corporators and in their place fielded new faces. The outcome was decided based on ground feedback as BJP rested its past winners to ensure that anti-incumbency does not affect the party prospects. The Prabhag comprises of Bajrang Nagar, New Subhedar Layout and Ladikar Layout, and adjoining areas of the Inner Ring Road. Localities in the stretch of Manewada Square to Uday Nagar Square and nearby area fall under the Prabhag. A salient point about the Prabhag is that it is quite a dense area, of which New Subhedar Layout, Vishwakarma Nagar and adjoining localities are quite well developed compared to other parts that still face issue of small by-lanes. The Prabhag has population of 68,711 voters with 10,215 being of Scheduled Caste and 2885 that of Scheduled Tribes. Though Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), that has sizable presence in South Nagpur once upon a time, tried to make inroads into the Prabhag, but failed to garner enough votes.

 

 

 

In fact, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidates put up a tough fight and dented Congress’ prospects in 2017 elections. In all the four seats, it was a close fight between Congress and NCP for the second place. At one of the ward in the Prabhag, a NCP candidate was runner-up, pushing the Congress nominee to third place. So with Congress refusing the offer of tie-up with NCP, will the Prabhag see a repeat of the last civic election is something to look out for. But this time, the NCP is a divided force, and each of the faction is competing and it depends on how much Congress put in efforts to sway the voters to it side will decide the outcome on January 15 polls.

 

 

Even after nine years, the people are most likely to continue with the winning combination. Yet the diminishing clout of BSP is likely to brighten up hopes of Congress as they hope to garner the floating votes in the Prabhag. The key to the outcome is the SC votes and in case they tilt one way, it would turn the tables on any one party in the race, said the political observers. 

 

 

The main problem that these areas in South Nagpur presently face is regards to interruption in power supply on frequent basis. With the power demand rising rapidly, and no place left for utilities, like new power station, the frequent power trouble is giving headache to the citizens. Although NMC has initiated door-to-door garbage collections, still many of the localities are facing issues of piling of garbage by roadside, indicating the need for more stronger response from the civic body.