Kamptee to see direct fight between Cong, BJP

 

 

KAMPTEE Assembly constituency has been predominantly represented by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the past three elections (2009, 2014, and 2019. It witnessed a notable shift in candidates in the 2019 election where BJP sailed home yet again. In 2019, among 12 candidates, Tekchand Sawarkar from the BJP garnered 1,18,182 votes (46.0% of the total votes). He was given a good fight by Suresh Bhoyar of Congress who secured 1,07,066 votes (41.7%). Rajesh Kakade from Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi received 10,601 votes (4.1%). The constituency had a total of 4,17,590 registered voters, out of which 2,56,965 cast their ballots, resulting in a voter turnout of 62.1%. Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the current State President of the BJP, had a long history of political service in the region, having been elected twice to the Zilla Parishad and thrice to the Maharashtra State Assembly from Kamptee. Despite his long-standing association with Kamptee constituency, the BJP made a shift during the 2019 elections by dropping Bawankule and fielded Sawarkar.

 

 

 

The 2014 State Assembly elections was a contest among 14 candidates. BJP’s Bawankule emerged victorious with 1,26,755 (54.0%) defeating Congress candidate Rajendra Mulak by a considerable margin. Mulak garnered 86,753 votes (36.9%), which was not sufficient to challenge Bawankule’s commanding lead. The winning margin was 17.1% (40,002 votes). Tapeshwar Vaidya, representing Shiv Sena, achieved a much smaller share of the vote compared to the top two candidates, with 12,791 votes (5.4%). The voter turnout in 2014 was 63.0%, with 2,34,935 people casting their votes out of 3,77,575 registered electors. In the 2009 Assembly election, Bawankule secured 95,080 votes (49.4%), with a winning margin of 31,093 votes (16.1%) over his closest competitor Sunita Gawande with 63,987 votes (33.2%). Sulekha Kumbhare from Bahujan Republican Ekta Manch with 24,236 votes (12.6%) ranked third. Her vote base indicated some level of support for her political party.

 

In the last Assembly election, although BJP maintained its winning streak in Kamptee it experienced a drop in vote share from 54% in 2014 to 46% in 2019. Conversely, while Congress had less vote share compared to BJP, its vote share steadily increased over the last three elections, rising from 33% to 36% and finally to 46%. The vote share of the third-place candidate gradually decreased, dropping from 12% in 2009 to 4.1% in 2019, indicating a direct contest between BJP and Congress. Overall, despite the change of its candidate in Kamptee constituency and a drop in vote share, BJP maintained a lead over its nearest rival.