West Nagpur is the one of the major assembly Constituency in Nagpur City. A total of 3 lakh 80 thousand voters are registered in this constituency. Currently, Congress party’s Nagpur city President Vikas Thakre is the MLA from this seat. In 2019, he won the election by defeating BJP’s Sudhakar Deshmukh.
The First Assembly election in West Nagpur were held in 1957. As of now total 14 elections have been held here, in which Congress has won seven times and BJP won six times and CPI has won once. West Nagpur is considered to be a stronghold of BJP. From 1990 to 2014 there has been a BJP MLA here. Firstly in 1990 Vinod Gudadhe Patil won the election for the first time on a BJP ticket. He remained an MLA till 1999. The current Deputy Chief Minister of the state Devendra Fadnavis has been elected as a member of the Assembly from here from 1999 to 2004.
Caste equation
West Nagpur assembly seat is a general category seat. But a good number of Muslims, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are present here. According to the 2011 census, there are 72,609 Scheduled Caste people in the assembly. Along with this, 28,388 Scheduled Tribe people live here. There are more than 40 thousand Muslim voters. However, at present this number has increased a lot. Kunbi voters are in decisive position in west Nagpur. Most of the population belongs to the Kunbi community. Along with this, a large number of North Indian society is also present here.
Major issues of the assembly:
West Nagpur is one of the most developed and VVIP areas of the city. Vidhan Bhavan, Civil Lines, Raj Bhavan, Chief Minister’s Secretariat including Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister’s residence are also in this area. Along with this, the city police headquarters is also here. Apart from this drainage line is a major issue. Along with this, water accumulation on the roads during the rainy season has also become an issue Providing basic facilities in the Jhingabai Takli including Godhni is one of the major issues. Encroachment and traffic problem in areas like Sadar, Sitabuldi are also big issues.
Vikas Thakre is the only candidate from the Congress, but there is a big competition to get the ticket from the BJP. BJP may give a chance to a woman candidate from this constituency this year. The names of Ashwini Jichkar, Varsha Thakre, Vaishali Chopde, Nanda Jichkar, Pragati Patil and Sangita Girhe are also discussed. Apart from this, the names of Kisan Gawande, Ramesh Chopde, Naresh Barde, Dayashankar Tiwari, Sandip Joshi and Jaiprakash Gupta have also come forward for candidature.