Close fight being witnessed in at least six LS seats in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has established a clear lead over the ruling Mahayuti in most of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra as per the trends available so far, six constituencies are seeing a close contest.

The MVA comprises the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Sharad Pawar, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar are part of the ruling alliance.

Close contests are being witnessed in Amravati, Beed, Bhandara-Gondia, Hatkanangale, Mumbai North-West and Satara, where fortunes of the main candidates could be seen fluctuating as counting of votes is in progress.

A seesaw battle is underway in Beed where BJP candidate and former Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde and her nearest rival Bajrang Sonawane from the NCP (SP) are in a close contest.

Similarly in Amravati, BJP's Navneet Rana and Congress nominee Balwant Wankhade are seeing a neck-to-neck battle.

Bhandara-Gondia is seeing a close fight between Congress candidate Prashant Padole and Sunil Mendhe of the BJP.

Hatkanangale is also seeing a close contest. Sitting Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane is in a tight race with Satyajeet Patil of the Shiv Sena (UBT). Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Paksh is the third candidate in race from this constituency.

In Mumbai North-West, too, the results are fluctuating in the fight between Amol Kirtikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Ravindra Waikar of the Shiv Sena. Kirtikar has polled 11,219 votes lead by afternoon.

Satara in western Maharashtra is also seeing a tight contest between Shashikant Shinde of the NCP (SP) and Udayanraje Bhosale of the BJP with Shinde leading by 784 votes.

Meanwhile, in Latur constituency in the state's Marathwada region as well, there is a neck-to-neck fight between Congress candidate Dr Shivaji Kalge and BJP's Sudhakar Shrangare. In the 10 rounds of counting of votes held by 2 pm, Kalge was leading by 23,212 votes. While Kalge got 2,32,154 votes, Shrangare bagged 2,08,942.