Akola LS seat: Dhotre favourite to win record 4th time

Nagpur: Saffron supporters are sure of retaining the Akola seat for the fourth time. They, however, have to wait at least till 10pm or beyond that on Thursday, till final results are out.
Akola district information officer (DIO) Gajanan Koturwar said there would be 29 rounds in the Akola constituency with the highest being in Murtizapur town. “The counting of EVM votes would be over by 4pm while that of VVPAT by 8pm. The postal ballots counting would begin at 8.30am and all ballots reaching them till 8am on Thursday would be taken into account. The entire process would be held under the supervision of collector Jitendra Papalkar at Government Grains Godown in Khadan area,” he told TOI.
BJP and Shiv Sena supporters are hoping for a repeat 2014 performance when the same three candidates had fought the battle for the seat, but Sanjay Dhotre, contesting on a BJP ticket, emerged winner for the third time. By winning a fourth time he will be equalling the feat of Pandurang Fundkar.
Akola and Nagpur are only sure shot seats for the saffron alliance in Vidarbha, where the BJP-Sena activists are expecting a one-sided contest. In remaining eight seats, they predicted a tough fight.
Though Dhotre is considered as hot favourite in the three-way battle, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s (VBA) Prakash Ambedkar and Congress Hidayat Patel are expected to give him a run for the money. According to political workers, even if Dhotre wins his margin would be less than that of 2014 — 2 lakh.
Though Dhotre couldn’t be contacted, Ambedkar refused to comment on anything related to counting. He told TOI that he would be sitting in the VBA’s office at Dadar in Mumbai on Thursday and would be open for all conversations thereafter.
Since polling, Ambedkar said he was busy in the campaigning for three other phases in the entire state for candidates from his newly formed outfit in association with All India Majl-is-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM). “I travelled drought-hit areas and made efforts to highlight their plight before the government.”
Patel sounded confident of a good show on Thursday, stating that except Akola East, he was sure to get maximum votes from other constituencies. “Besides Muslim and Dalits, I’ve received an overwhelming response from the OBCs, STs, Matang and other communities. Even anti-incumbency votes against Dhotre were bagged by our party. So, I am very positive about the outcome,” he said.
(With inputs from Janhvi Shirsat)