Gawali outperformed Thakre in all the six assembly segments

Yavatmal: Bhavana Gawali of the Shiv Sena, who defeated her nearest rival Manikrao Thakre of Congress by a margin of 1,17,939 votes, performed much better than him in all the six assembly segments. She secured 5,42,098 votes against Thakre’s 4,24,159.
In 2009, Gawali had defeated Congress candidate Haribhau Rathod by 57,011 votes. However, Rathod had an edge over Gawali in Karanja and Pusad assembly constituencies. In 2014, though Congress leader Shivajirao Moghe had lost to her by a margin of 93,816 votes, he had polled more votes in Pusad assembly segment.
This time, the candidate on the third place was Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Pravin Pawar who polled 94,228 votes. In 2009, Dilip Edatkar of BSP had bagged 62,781 votes. In 2014, BSP candidate Baliram Rathod had secured 48,981 votes.
Talking to media after receiving her certificate from the chief election officer and collector Ajay Gulhane, Bhavana thanked voters for reposing their trust in her. “I will strive to make the new railway line between Sevagram and Nanded via Yavatmal a reality in this tenure,” she said adding that the broad gauge conversion of existing Yavatmal-Murtizapur Shakuntala line will be taken up on priority.
“Other issues which need immediate attention include upgrading government medical college to a super speciality hospital, speedy completion of AMRUT drinking water supply scheme from Bembla dam, completion of national highway between Bori and Tulzapur and rehabilitation of those affected, farm loan waiver issues and expedition of pending dam projects etc,” she said.
Shiv Sena office bearers and her supporters were present at the collector’s office to greet Gawali when she collected her certificate. Earlier in the day, MoS Sanjay Rathod and his family visited Gawali at her residence to congratulate her. A large number of well-wishers also gathered at her residence.