Praful Patel’s Rajya Sabha berth clears deck for BJP to reassert claim on Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha seat

A senior NCP (Ajit faction) leader, requesting anonymity, said that if Patel were keen on Bhandara-Gondia, his party would have pursued it till the end. “But with him going to the Rajya Sabha, we don’t want to make it a prestige issue,” the leader said.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the contest in Bhandara-Gondia constituency was between the BJP’s Sunil Mendhe and the then undivided NCP’s Nana Panchbudhe. Mendhe swept the elections polling 52 per cent of the votes, leaving Panchbudhe, his nearest rival, with 36 per cent votes. The constituency in eastern Vidarbha is known for paddy cultivation.

For the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is contemplating on whether it should field Mendhe or MLC Parinay Phuke. A close confidant of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Phuke lost the 2019 Assembly elections to Congress state president Nana Patole from the Sakoli constituency in Bhandara.

BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, “The BJP is confident of winning all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the Vidarbha region. The party has a strong organisational base. Apart from that, the 2024 elections will be primarily about getting PM Narendra Modi re-elected for a third term. From the public mood, it is evident the results in Vidarbha region will be in the BJP’s favour.”

A senior BJP functionary said, “Given the limitation of 48 seats, the BJP will have an upper hand in deciding who should contest which seat. As the polls will be fought on ‘Moditva’, the alliance partners Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) also reckon the pressure on the BJP to ensure absolute results in the Lok Sabha. Therefore, both CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are not going to press for a hard bargain in the Vidarbha region. Both will assert their rights in the Assembly elections to be held six months later, in October 2024.”

From 1951 to 2008, the Bhandara Lok Sabha constituency was with the Congress, except when Ashok Mehta of the Praja Socialist Party won in 1954. He later joined the Congress. During the Janata Party wave across the country its candidate, Laxman Mankar, bagged the seat. After delimitation, the constituency became Bhandara-Gondia.

Praful Patel, who is a native of Gondia, won the seat as the Congress candidate in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 2009 he represented the constituency as an NCP MP.

When the NCP was formed on June 10, 1999, after the Congress expelled Sharad Pawar, Patel also joined the new party. He was among the founding members of the NCP led by Pawar. In July 2023, when the NCP split into two factions, Patel sided with Ajit Pawar, who later became deputy chief minister.

In 2014 the Modi wave that felled many established leaders was witnessed in Bhandara-Gondia as well. Nana Patole, who was then with the BJP, defeated Patel, then a Union minister, and earned the giant killer tag. Patole left the BJP in December 2017 to join the Congress, accusing the party of ignoring farmers.

Patole’s resignation from the BJP necessitated a bypoll in Bhandara-Gondia. Although he was not a contestant, the BJP and the NCP fought a prestigious and fierce battle. In a major setback to the BJP, Hemant Patle lost to the NCP’s Madhukar Kukde.

Five years later, in 2019, the BJP fielded Sunil Mendhe and he defeated the NCP’s Nana Panchbudhe.