Sena vs Sena contest takes centre stage as second phase of Maharashtra LS polls ends

In Maharashtra's second phase of Lok Sabha elections, 204 candidates will contest in eight seats across western Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. The Shiv Sena factions led by CM Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray will face off in Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim, and Hingoli. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, led by Prakash Ambedkar, is contesting seven seats. The BJP, Congress, and NCP are also fielding strong candidates. Voting will take place on April 26th, with 1.49 crore eligible voters. The second phase completes voting for the entire Vidarbha region, with counting scheduled for June 4th.

As many as 204 candidates will battle it out for eight Lok Sabha seats on Friday in Maharashtra where the high-voltage campaigning for the second phase of polling ended on Wednesday evening.

Voting in Lok Sabha seats of Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim in western Vidarbha, Hingoli, Nanded and Parbhani in Marathwada will be held on April 26 (Friday) from 7 am to 6 pm at 16,589 polling centres.

A total of 1,49,25,912 voters -- 77, 21, 374 males, 72,04,106 females and 432 of the third gender -- are eligible to exercise their franchise and decide the electoral fate of 204 candidates.

Amravati has the highest number of candidates at 37, followed by Parbhani (34), Hingoli (33), Wardha (24), Nanded (23), Buldhana (21), Yavatmal-Washim (17) and Akola (15).

The second phase will see a face-off between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) in Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim and Hingoli seats.

In Buldhana, sitting Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav is pitted against Narendra Khedekar of the Sena (UBT).

In Yavatmal-Washim, the Shiv Sena has dropped sitting MP Bhavana Gwali and fielded Rajashree Patil, the wife of the party's Hingoli MP Hemant Patil. The Sena (UBT) has nominated Sanjay Deshmukh.

In Hingoli, sitting MP Hemant Patil of the Shiv Sena has been dropped and the party has fielded Baburao Kohalikar. In Parbhani, Mahadev Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, an ally of the ruling 'Mahayuti' (grand alliance) in the state, is contesting against sitting MP Sanjay Jadhav of the Sena (UBT).

The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), led by Dr B R Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar, is contesting seven of the eight seats.

Prakash Ambedkar himself is contesting from Akola. His brother Anandraj Ambedkar is in the fray in Amravati as the Republic Sena nominee.

In Akola, the three-way contest is between BJP's Anup Dhotre, Congress candidate Abhay Patil and Prakash Ambedkar.

Amravati will see a fight between sitting Independent MP Navneet Rana, now contesting as the BJP nominee, and Balwant Wankhede of the Congress. Dinesh Bub is the nominee of the Prahar Janshakti Party, a ruling alliance partner which has two MLAs in the assembly.

Wardha will see a contest between sitting BJP MP Ramdas Tadas and former Congress MLA Amar Kale, who is contesting on the NCP (SP) ticket.

In Nanded, sitting BJP MP Pratap Chikhalikar is pitted against Congress nominee Vasant Chavan.

After the second phase, voting in the entire Vidarbha region of the state will be completed. On April 19, five seats in east Vidarbha - Nagpur, Ramtek, Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya and Gadchiroli-Chimur -- went to polls and registered 63.70 per cent voting.

Votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections will be counted on June 4.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)