Maharashtra's Akola set for three-cornered fight in Lok Sabha polls

Akola (Maharashtra) [India], April 23 (ANI): Maharashtra's Akola constituency is set to witness a triangular contest between three strong candidates in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Anup Dhotre, son of sitting MP Sanjay Dhotre from Akola, the Congress has fielded Abhay Kashinath Patil, a Maratha, from the key constituency.
Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of the Dalit icon and the father of the Constitution, BR Ambedkar, who is also the president of the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi will be contesting from Akola as well.
Akola is a safe constituency for the BJP as Dhotre has been winning the seat since 2004. Earlier, Prakash Ambedkar was elected as MP from Akola in 1996 and 1999.
In 2019, Dhotre defeated Ambedkar by a margin of 2,75,596 votes. While Dhotre got 49.5 per cent of votes, Ambedkar got 24.9 per cent. Congress' Hidayatullah Patel came third winning 22.7 per of the votes.
In 2014, Dhotre defeated Patel by a margin of 2,03,116 votes. Dhotre bagged 46.7 per cent votes and Patel got 25.9 per cent votes. Ambedkar came third winning 24.4 per cent votes.
Attempts were made by the Congress-led alliance in Maharashtra to change the conventional three-cornered poll battle in Akola to a head-on fight between the ruling Mahayuti coalition and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
However, Ambedkar announced candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats in the state, dealing a blow to hopes of his party joining the MVA, the three-party combine of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party (SCP), and the Congress, ahead of the seven-phased general elections.
The Mahayuti consists of the BJP, the Ekhath Sinde faction of the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The alliance came into existence in Maharashtra when the BJP allegedly engineered a split in Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and brought down the MVA government in the state. A year later, another split took place within the ranks of the NCP, with a sizeable number of MLAs led by Ajit Pawar, joining the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine.
Eight Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra will go to polls in the second phase on April 26.
In the first phase on April 19, polling was held in Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara - Gondiya, Gadchiroli - Chimur, and Chandrapur.
In the second phase, voting will be held in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, Wardha, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, Nanded, and Parbhani.
The NDA--BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena--won 7 of these 8 seats in 2019. The BJP bagged Akola, Wardha, and Nanded, while the Sena won Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim, Hingoli, and Parbhani.
Navneet Rana, who is now with the BJP, won Amravati in 2019 as an Independent and is seeking a fresh term from the seat this year on a saffron ticket. (ANI)