Five Maharashtra seats, including Nitin Gadkari's Nagpur, to vote in first phase
Maharashtra has total 48 Lok Sabha seats, the highest after Uttar Pradesh (80).
Of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha constituencies, as many as five will go to polls on Friday in the first of seven phase-general elections. In the first phase, 97 other seats across another 20 states/Union territories will vote, marking the beginning of the world's largest democratic exercise.
In the 543-member Lok Sabha, Maharashtra has 48 seats, the highest after Uttar Pradesh (80). The counting of votes for all 543 seats will be held on June 4, three days after the seventh and final leg of polling.
Which Maharashtra seats are polling in phase 1?
Union minister Nitin Gadkari is in fray from his home turf of Nagpur, which is also the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gadkari is eyeing a hattrick of wins from Nagpur.
Another high-profile candidate is Sudhir Mungantiwar, a minister in the BJP-led Maharashtra government. Mungantiwar is standing from Chandrapur.
Sunil Mendhe, the saffron party's sitting MP from Bhandara-Gondiya, is on ticket this time as well.
Of the five constituencies polling in the first leg, the BJP is fighting on four, and its ally, chief minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, on one. Their primary challengers is the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), meanwhile, is contesting on two of the seats.
| Constituency | BJP/Shiv Sena candidate | MVA candidate | VBA candidate |
| Ramtek | Raju Devnath Parwe (Shiv Sena) | Shyamkumar Dault Barve (Congress) | - |
| Nagpur | Nitin Gadkari (BJP) | Vikas Thakare (Congress) | - |
| Bhandara-Gondiya | Sunil Mendhe (BJP) | Dr Prashant Yadavrao Padole | - |
| Gadchiroli-Chimur | Ashok Nete (BJP) | Dr Namdeo Dasaram Kirsan | Hitesh Pandurang Madavi |
| Chandrapur | Sudhir Mungantiwar (BJP) | Pratibha Dhanorkar | Rajesh Warluji Bele |
