As many as 201 candidates are in the fray for ten Lok Sabha constituencies in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra where polling will be held on April 10.
These constituencies are Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondia, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Chandrapur and Yavatmal-Washim.
Of the 318 candidates who had filed their nominations, nominations of 271 were found valid. Seventy of them withdrew their papers afterwards.
The prominent candidates include NCP leader and Union Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel (Bhandara-Gondia), BJP leader Nitin Gadkari who is making his electoral debut against Congress veteran Vilas Muttemwar in Nagpur, Congress's Mukul Wasnik in Ramtek, state minister Sanjay Devtale in Chandrapur and Shivajirao Moghe in Yavatmal.
At present, Congress holds Nagpur, Wardha, Gadchiroli-Chimur and Ramtek. NCP has Bhandara-Gondia, BJP has Akola, Chandrapur, and Shiv Sena has Buldhana, Yavatmal and Amravati.
