Mumbai: Nine reserved seats in Maharashtra — Ramtek, Amravati, Latur, Solapur, Shirdi (scheduled caste seats) and Gadchiroli-Chimur, Dindori, Palghar and Nandurbar (scheduled tribe seats)— will witness a fierce contest between the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and the Congress-NCP combine in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
In 2014, all nine seats were won by the BJP-Sena alliance, thus handing a crushing defeat to the Congress-NCP combine, which once used to dominate these seats. Riding on the Modi wave, the Sena won Ramtek and Amravati in 2014, whereas the BJP won the remaining seven seats.
In the absence of the Modi wave this time, the Congress-NCP are trying hard to regain their foothold in these seats. However, they are facing a tough battle because of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Agadi, which has also tied up with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). The failure of the NCP-Congress to bring Mr Ambedkar into the alliance is expected to spoil the former’s chances.
Of these reserved seats, Nandurbar has the highest ST population of 58.90 per cent while Dindori and Palghar have a SC/ST combined population of over 40 per cent.
Maharashtra has 11 constituencies where the SC/ST population is more than 20 per cent and in case of six seats, the number is more than 30 per cent. These seats include Chandrapur which has 12.40 per cent SC and 32.10 per cent ST.
