Maharashtra Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Sena vs Sena fight in 3 of 8 seats in Phase 2

High-voltage campaigning for Maharashtra's eight seats going to polls in the second phase ended today. As many as 204 candidates are in the fray for eight Lok Sabha seats set for voting on Friday. 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 centers. 

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 witness a face-off between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) in Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim and Hingoli seats. 

In Buldhana, sitting Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav is taking on 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), 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 that 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 up against Congress leader Vasant Chavan. The saffron party is hoping to strengthen its position as it has onboarded Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, who has considerable clout in the region. 

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.