Nanded (Maharashtra) : In the shadow of assembly elections in Maharashtra, another important political battle between Congress and BJP is taking place — the bypoll for the Nanded Lok Sabha seat.

Both camps are exuding confidence of winning the Nov 20 bypoll. Congress has fielded Ravindra Chavan for the seat which fell vacant after the demise of his father Vasant Chavan on Aug 26. The party is banking on a sympathy wave. BJP has sent in its "grassroots candidate" Santukrao Hambarde, who commands significant influence over the electorate here.

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Bypoll will also offer the former chief minister Ashok Chavan a chance to recover some lost ground. He was defeated by BJP from the LS seat just after he had joined the party after ditching Congress.

His name had also surfaced earlier as the likely BJP candidate for the Nanded bypoll, but he had earlier denied reports saying that his daughter Sreejaya was already in the fray from Bhokar assembly seat and it would not be proper for a father-daughter duo to contest the bypoll from the same Nanded district. Besides Chavan, the other BJP MLA from Nanded will also vote for the party candidate for the Nanded by-election. Ajit Gopchade, a Rajya Sabha member residing in Nanded, is the other BJP MLA from the constituency.

In the 2019 LS poll, Pratap Patil Chikhalikar emerged a clear winner of the BJP candidate with victory in the Nanded seat with Ashok Chavan in the fray, but the last time he was defeated was by over 59,000 votes by Vasant Chavan. He was also for fighting the bypoll but the BJP leadership never trusted Chikhalikar, with internal surveys reportedly against him. He later merged into NCP under the leadership of Ajit Pawar and is now contesting the assembly poll from Loha in Nanded, from which he has won twice as an MLA.

BJP's Santukrao Hambarde BJP district president for Nanded Interestingly, the elder brother of sitting Congress MLA from Nanded South, Mohan Hambarde, who is again in the poll fray for Nanded South. The younger brother has already accused the BJP of triggering a rift in his family.

He feels that the Lok Sabha election result in Marathwada was not a permanent setback. Mahayuti lost only seven out of eight seats from the region, including Nanded. According to him, the party will surely make a comeback in the Nanded bypoll.

With the BJP returning to power once again after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it is no wonder that people of Nanded want their MP to become a part of the ruling alliance. The sympathy wave for the candidate of the Congress will not be seen in Nanded, but its urge to be part of PM Narendra Modi, said Hambarde while talking to News Agency.

Chavan of Congress said "money power" will once again be routed. "People of Nanded will stay with Congress even if the bigwigs leave, for their personal gains. The LS poll results in Maharashtra this year were just a trailer. The full picture will unfold after the bypoll and the assembly polls, he said.".

Industrial growth still lags far behind in one of the most important cities of Marathwada-Nanded, despite the good potential. There have been repeated demands for better road connectivity. Yet, Nanded is not even part of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi expressway, though work on the Jalna-Nanded extension is still pending. Nanded was also planned to be on the Nagpur-Goa Shaktipeeth highway, but stiff resistance to the project removed the city from the plan.