With voter turnout of less than 50% in the six city seats and around 55% in the six seats in the district, the fate of 199 candidates was
sealed in voting machines on Tuesday. The moderate voting percentage has only added to the uncertainty of the contest which is expected to be close in several of these seats.
The major contestants working without sleep and rest for over a fortnight got much deserved relief by evening. But the uncertainty of the poll battle would be weighing on their minds till the D-day -- October 22-- when votes would be counted and results declared.
"Nitinbhau is asleep," was the summary reply this correspondent got from the person who answered the call on his mobile phone around 8 pm. Contesting from Nagpur North seat, Raut is sure of the third consecutive win but in the afternoon he sounded nervous and made feverish enquiries about the turnout in his constituency. With a number of candidates staking claim for the Dalit vote in this seat, Raut is still favourite over his BJP rival Rajesh Tambe.
"Voting in my constituency was brisk from the start. Voters were very enthusiastic," said an enthused Satish Chaturvedi, Congress candidate from Nagpur East. A good turnout of nearly 60% is expected to favour him improve the winning margin. The veteran Congress leader was also happy that voters mainly from big slums like Dipty Signal and Mini Mata Nagar, especially women, were out in full strength from early morning and were very keen to exercise their franchise.
A low turnout of 47% in Nagpur West failed to dampen the spirit of Congress nominee Anees Ahmed who is in a tough fight with BJP's Sudhakar Deshmukh. The low vote may not particularly help Ahmed, it is belived. But a confident Ahmed told TOI: "I am sure of a win." In South West Nagpur, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis remained a frontrunner amid reports that an independent contestant Bablu Deotale may not dent BJP votes as feared. Congress' Vikas Thakre was, however, not giving up as yet. "My party voters were out there in large numbers to vote for me and victory will be mine," he said soon after the polling ended.
In Central, which recorded a low 48% turnout, the scales may tilt any way depending on who gets the bigger Halba vote pie between BJP's Vikas Kumbhare and Congress' Dr Raju Deoghare, in what is seen as battle of low-profile candidates. Interestingly, another low-profile Congress candidate Dinanath Padole may scrape through from Nagpur South getting advantage of vote split of Sena's official nominee Kishore Kumeria who has to contend with BJP-rebel Mohan Mate.