Lok Sabha elections: BJP turns Nitin Gadkari’s nomination filing into show of strength in Nagpur

Gadkari is seeking a third term in the Lower house from the city of oranges, where Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be held on April 19 in the first of the five-phase polls in Maharashtra.

The rally ahead of the filing of nomination saw party workers gathering in huge numbers. While holding such rallies is not unprecedented, the BJP’s objective was to display both Gadkari’s popularity and the party’s might in Nagpur, said BJP poll strategists.

Nitin Gadkari was accompanied by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party leader and former union minister Praful Patel while filing his poll nomination.

Addressing the gathering, Gadkari gave out a clarion call to the party workers and asked them to work to ensure a bigger mandate. “Let us strive for 75 per cent votes for BJP in Nagpur. There is no doubt about the victory but we should work to improve our vote share,” he said.

Gadkari contested from Nagpur in 2014 and 2019. In 2014, he defeated Congress’s senior leader Vilas Muttemwar by polling 5.87 lakh (54.17 per cent) votes. Muttemwar polled 3.02 lakh votes (27.92 per cent). In 2019, Gadkari improved the vote share to 6.60 lakh (55.67 per cent) against then Congress candidate Nana Patole who polled 4.44 lakh votes (37.45 per cent).

Fadnavis, in his address to the crowd, said, “Gadkari is a ‘Vikas Purush (man who brings development)’, a national leader whose work has been recognised across the country. The infrastructure-driven work undertaken by Gadkari has led to development across the country.”

He added, “The 2024 Lok Sabha election is for the 2047 Viksit Bharat dream of PM Narendra Modi.”

Nitin Gadkari won from Nagpur in 2014 and 2019.

“The people of Nagpur have an opportunity to create a record and ensure the BJP gets a huge mandate in Nagpur for Gadkari,” Fadnavis said.

Expressing solidarity with alliance partner BJP, Patel said, “I wonder why we waited this long to form an alliance with the BJP. But then, it is better late than never.”

Patel added, “Gadkariji has established his own distinct identity through his development agenda. We, the people of the Vidarbha region, are proud to have a leader of his stature with us.”

According to Bawankule, the rally was spontaneous as party workers have been thronging the venue since BJP’s Central Election Committee in the second list. The absence of his name in the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, which included party heavyweights such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh et al, had led to some unease within the Gadkari camp.

A senior BJP MLA based in Nagpur said, “Gadkariji is a senior leader whose name we had expected in the first list along with Modi, Shah, Singh and the others. So, when his name was withheld, there were some anxious moments.”

In Nagpur, the Congress has fielded Vikas Thakre as a candidate against Gadkari, paving way for a direct fight between the two parties.