Fielding young faces in Vidarbha pays rich dividends to BJP

The party garnered an overwhelming support in the region, when compared to the youth brigade of the Congress

Fielding new and young faces across Vidarbha has paid rich dividends to the BJP in the recently held Assembly polls, with the party garnering an overwhelming support in the region, when compared to the youth brigade of the Congress, which failed to strike a chord with voters in the cotton-rich belt infamous for farmer suicides.

In Nagpur-North, BJP fielded Milind Mane, a practicing medico, who routed three-term sitting MLA and EGS Minister in erstwhile Congress-NCP government, Nitin Raut, polling 68,904 votes.

Raut finished third with 50,042 votes on the seat, where BSP candidate and retired bureaucrat Kishore Gajbhiye ended up being runners up with 55,187 votes.

Similarly, BJP's Ashish Deshmukh, son of former Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president and former Agriculture Minister, Ranjeet Deshmukh trounced his own uncle and four-term MLA and ex-Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Anil Deshmukh (NCP) by over six thousand votes.

His younger brother Amol Deshmukh after failing to get a Congress ticket from Ramtek, contested on the NCP plank but lost to BJP candidate Malikarjun Reddy.

Similarly, Sameer Meghe (of BJP), younger son of former MP Datta Meghe who quit Congress after the Lok Sabha polls, was lucky to defeat former Minister Ramesh Bang of NCP.

BJP replaced sitting MLA Vijay Ghodmare to accommodate Meghe from Hingana in Nagpur rural.

Kirtikumar Bhangadia (BJP), the richest candidate in Vidarbha and also the son of MLC Mitesh Bhangadia beat Avinash Warjurkar (Congress) who enjoyed the status of MoS being the Chairman of Maharashtra Mining Corporation in Chimur.

Rajesh Kashiwar (Sakoli), Charan Waghmare (Tumsar), Adv R Avsare (Bhandara), S Bodkurwar (Wani), Akash Bhausaheb Fundkar (Khamgaon) and Ashok Uike (Ralagaon) are some other young faces of the BJP who were sent to the State Assembly.

While youth leaders in Congress who met the waterloo were: former Minister of State for Finance, Rajendra Mulak (Kamptee), Abhijit Wanjari (Nagpur-East), Prafulla Guddhe Patil (Nagpur-South-West), Vikas Thakre (Nagpur-West), Rahul Manikrao Thakre (Yavatmal), Asawari Deotale (Warora), Ghanshyam Mulchandani (Ballarpur), Saguna Talandi (Gadchiroli) and Shekhar Pramod Shende (Wardha).