Shiv Sena’s Jadhav scores hat-trick

Nagpur: Sitting Shiv Sena MP Pratap Jadhav scored a hat-trick of wins from Buldhana Lok Sabha constituency. At the end of all the rounds of counting on Thursday, he had polled 5.21 lakh votes. His NCP rival Rajendra Shingane secured 3.88 lakh votes followed by Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s (VBA) Baliram Siraskar at 1.56 lakh votes.
Jadhav defeated Shingane, a former minister, by a margin of 1.33 lakh votes. The final tally was supposed to be out by midnight, as counting of VVPAT was yet to be conducted.
Jadhav had already predicted his victory by a margin of 50,000-70,000 votes while speaking with TOI on Wednesday, before counting.
Earlier, the poll analysts had predicted a repeat of 2009 polls, where Jadhav and Shingane had engaged in a tough battle. The Sena candidate managed to trounce NCP contestant by a narrow margin of 28,000 votes. However, it turned out to be one-sided battle in 2019.
Since both Jadhav and Shingane belonged to dominant Maratha community, it was expected these votes would be split. Both are also having stranglehold over Buldhana’s cooperative sector. Shingane’s decision not to contest 2014 Lok Sabha polls seemed to have backfired on him as he lost his relevance, analysts said.