Water crisis, reservation key poll issues among voters in Beed Lok Sabha constituency

Beed (Maharashtra) [India], May 12 (ANI): Beed Lok Sabha constituency in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra state will go to polls in the upcoming fourth phase of the 2024 general elections on Monday, along with 10 other constituencies in the state.
In the fourth phase, polling will take place across 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
The other constituencies are Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Maval, Pune, Shirur, Ahmednagar and Shirdi.
The Beed Lok Sabha seat is set to witness a tough contest between BJP candidate Pankaja Gopinath Munde and Bajrang Manohar Sonwane of the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Chandra Pawar (NCP-SCP).
NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) party has once again fielded Bajrang Sonawane from the Beed Lok Sabha seat. Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Bajrang Sonawane had got around 5.09 lakh votes.
BJP candidate Pankaja Gopinath Munde said she will achieve "very respectable victory" in the Lok Sabha elections from the Beed constituency.
She said, "I am completely confident about my victory. This is because we (the BJP) are entering the Lok Sabha elections with the development work we have done. This is the first time I will contest the Lok Sabha polls."
"With my 22 years of experience in politics and the relationships I have built with people, I am confident that I will achieve a very respectable victory," added the BJP leader.
For the Beed Lok Sabha seat, the party named Pankaja Gopinath Munde as its candidate, instead of her sister Pritam Gopinath Rao Munde, who has been holding the seat for the last two terms.
Her younger sister, Pritam, has been representing the Beed seat since 2014. Their late father, Gopinath Munde, had won the Beed parliamentary constituency in 2009 and 2014.
However, his death in 2014 led to Pritam contesting and winning that year's bypoll from there, along with the 2019 elections. The BJP has given candidature to the third member of the same family, Pankaja.
In the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, Pritam Gopinathrao Munde, representing the BJP, emerged victorious as the winning candidate from the Beed Lok Sabha constituency.
Pritam Gopinathrao Munde secured a total of 678175 votes, while her closest competitor, Bajrang Manohar Sonwane of the NCP, garnered 509807 votes and faced defeat with a margin of 168368 votes.
Beed faces a severe water crisis, with many villages experiencing water shortages and residents having to travel to find drinking water. The lack of industries has hindered its development.
Reservation is also an important issue. Pankaja Gopinath Munde said that her opponents are trying to polarize the voters in the name of caste. "I am willing to take people of all castes and creeds along," she said.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 contested seats, while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of 23 seats.
Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra are being held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20.
The counting of votes will be held on June 4. (ANI)