A first: Congress out of Wardha poll fray

Animesh Singh

Wardha, April 4

Wardha, a quiet central Indian historically important town in Maharashtra, which is 80 km from Nagpur, has been a Congress bastion for decades. However, in a unique turn of events, it will be for the first time since Independence that there won’t be a Congress candidate in the fray for 2024 Lok Sabha polls from here.

The reason for this is that Congress’ two-time MLA from Arvi, Amar Kale, who had joined the NCP (Sharad Pawar) on March 29, has been nominated against BJP’s Ramdas Tadas, who has been winning from here since 2014.

Locals say that Kale has a clean image. However, why he joined the Pawar-led NCP is not clearly known. Incidentally, Pawar had personally accompanied Kale when he filed his nomination from here on April 2.

On Wednesday, Tadas filed his nomination from Wardha in the presence of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Kale is the third direct contestant against Tadas from Wardha, as the sitting BJP MP had defeated Congress nominees Sagar Meghe and Charulata Tokas in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, respectively. From 1952 till 1989, Wardha was a Congress bastion. It was in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, that CPI’s Ramchandra Ghangare won from here, breaking the Congress’ winning streak.

Veteran Congress leader Vasant Sathe had won from here consecutively three times from 1980 to 1989. In 1996, the BJP won from Wardha for the first time, though the Congress regained the seat in 1998 and again in 1999, after Datta Meghe and Prabha Rau won from here, respectively. In 2004, BJP’s Suresh Waghmare won the seat, while in 2009 Meghe regained it for the Congress.