 "The party office was filled with Narendra Modi’s larger-than-life cutouts and posters. Even children were made to dress up like him | Photo: PTI")
It was a bittersweet election for four Union ministers from Maharashtra as two, including senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, won while the other two lost the Lok Sabha poll.
Gadkari comfortably won the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 2,16,009 votes.
A former BJP president, Gadkari retained the seat by defeating his nearest Congress rival Nana Patole. Gadkari polled 6,60,221 votes, while Patole got 4,44,212 votes at the end of counting spread over 20 rounds.
In 2014, Gadkari had won the Nagpur constituency, which this time voted in the first phase on April 11, by a margin of 2,84,828 votes.
Union minister Subhash Bhamre won from Dhule. The BJP candidate polled 613533 votes, while his Congress rival Kunal Patil got 384290 votes.
The BJP suffered a setback in Chandrapur, where Union minister Hansraj Ahir lost to Suresh alias Balu Dhanorkar of the Congress by a margin of 44,763 votes.
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This is the only Lok Sabha seat won by the Congress in Maharashtra, which sends 48 members to the Lok Sabha.
Dhanorkar, a sitting Shiv Sena MLA before joining the Congress ahead of elections, secured 5,59,507 votes, while Ahir got 5,14,744 votes.
In 2014, Ahir had won from Chandrapur by a margin of 2,36,269 votes.
In Raigad, Shiv Sena leader and Union minister Anant Geete lost to NCP's Sunil Tatkare. While Tatkare got 486968 votes, Geete polled 455530 votes.
