Maharashtra Elections: Nana Patole in a triangular fight on Sakoli seat; rebel Somdutt independent, BJP's challenge increases

Sakoli constituency is a famous assembly constituency of Bhandara district. State Congress President Nana Patole is contesting elections from this seat. From Sakoli to the whole of Vidarbha, the message has been broadcast that Nana Patole will become the next Chief Minister of the state. Due to this, it is common discussion in the area that Nana Patole is contesting the Chief Minister's election and not the assembly election in Sakoli. To challenge Nana, BJP has also fielded OBC face Avinash Brahmanekar, but BJP rebel Somdatt Karanjekar has played a game by entering the fray as an independent.

Nobody's bet works on this seat.

Sakoli assembly constituency has generally never been the stronghold of any one political party. Here, the fight from Jan Sangh to BJP and Congress has been equal. But Nana Patole has now made it his stronghold by winning the elections twice. Patole himself has been an MLA from this seat once in 2009 on a BJP ticket. After that, in 2019, as a Congress candidate, Nana defeated BJP's Parinay Phuket. Patole got 95,208 votes i.e. 41.63 percent of the total votes while Phuke had to be content with 88,968 votes.

What does Raju Karvare say?

Raju Karvare of Lakhani Bazaar says that this time BJP is trying its best to regain this seat due to its strong organization. But BJP's rebel Somdatt Karanjekar is trying to make the fight triangular by contesting as an independent. Grocery businessman Deepak Jhade says that in such a situation, there is a possibility of victory of the third in the fight of two.

Caste equation and major issues of the assembly

Sakoli is a Hindu-dominated area, but the number of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters is more than 22 percent. At the same time, 17% of voters are of other religions. The number of Muslim voters is 3 percent. Sakoli assembly constituency has 80 percent rural voters. Therefore, roads, electricity, and water are also issues here. The BHEL project has been proposed here since the time of the UPA government at the Centre, but it is still only on paper.