Rana gets the better of Adsul

Amravati: Congress-NCP supported Independent candidate Navneet Rana scripted history in Amravati Lok Sabha constituency by defeating Shiv Sena stalwart, former Union minister of state and five-time MP Anand Adsul by 36,951 votes.
She secured 5,10,947 votes at the end of all the 18 rounds of counting while Adsul got 4,73,996 votes. With this defeat, the Shiv Sena-BJP will lose its grip over the constituency after ruling it for 20 years at a stretch.
Locked in a straight fight with Adsul, Rana garnered nearly 50% of the votes.
Rana is all set to make history by becoming the only Independent woman candidate in the country to win a Lok Sabha seat this year and the first woman MP of the constituency after a long gap of 28 years.
Congress’ Pratibhatai Patil, who later became the President of India, was the last woman to represent this constituency in 1991. Rana is also set to become only the third woman to win Amravati LS seat. Ushatai Chaudhary (Congress-I) was the first woman to represent Amravati, winning it in 1980 and 1984.
In 2014, Rana had lost to Adsul by 1,37,932 votes due to a strong Modi wave. She was then a NCP candidate.
“I am indebted to my voters who helped me send ‘this outsider’ (Adsul) back to his place. He did nothing for the constituency in the last 10 years. The way he tormented me was not likened by women who taught him a lesson,” Rana told TOI.
As counting began at 8am on Thursday, Adsul was in the lead for the first five rounds, but Rana bounced back in the sixth to not only wipe out a deficit of 9,328 votes but also take a lead of 3,606 votes.
VBA’s Gunwant Deopare managed to get only 65,135 votes while BSP’s Arun Wankhade only 12,336 votes.
Rana said she would take all efforts to get a separate budget for farmers, a full-fledged airport at Belora, work for a government medical college or a medical research centre in Amravati, tourism development in Chikhaldara and MIDC development .