Animesh Singh

Nagpur, April 11

The Nagpur Lok Sabha seat is a prestigious constituency which will go to the polls in the first phase of the General Election on April 19, with Union Minister and sitting MP Nitin Gadkari eyeing his third straight win from here.

However, his rival and Congress candidate Vikas Thakare, who has been maintaining a low profile, calls himself a people's person and thinks that there would be a straight contest between Gadkari and him as Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) won't be a factor this time.

Speaking to The Tribune while taking time out from his door-to-door campaigning in the constituency, Thakare, who is the city Congress chief and MLA from Nagpur West, said he had been a grassroot worker of the party and reached this position after having contested all local body polls.

"In 2014, there was a Modi wave, so Gadkari won by a margin of 2.8 lakh votes. Five years later in 2019, there was no such wave so he managed to win by 1.9 lakh votes. Now after 10 years, the situation has drastically changed and people have been watching what has happened in the country. There has been no development and inflation has been high. So it is not going to be easy for Gadkari this time," he claimed.

He said, "The BJP leader talks about the need for 'vikas', while what Nagpur actually needs is Vikas (Thakare)".