Nagpur, Apr 19: Union minister Nitin Gadkari, the ruling BJP's candidate from the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat, on Friday expressed confidence that he would win the election by a huge margin.
The senior BJP leader, who is seeking his third term in Parliament from Nagpur, also thanked the party workers for their support.
Gadkari cast his vote at the polling booth at Town Hall in Mahal area of the city with his wife, two sons and daughters-in-law.
Speaking to reporters later, the minister said, “I will certainly win the elections by a huge margin.”
Calling the elections the biggest festival of democracy, he said, “I hope that people in the country will use their right to vote, which is their responsibility as well.”
Gadkari said the voter turnout last time was 54 per cent and expressed hope that it would go up to 75 per cent this time.
Congress candidate Vikas Thakre was pitted against Gadkari.
The former BJP president had contested the election from Nagpur for the first time in 2014 and then in 2019.
In 2014, Gadkari had defeated veteran Congress leader Vilas Muttemwar, while in the 2019 polls, he defeated Congress candidate Nana Patole, who is now the grand old party's Maharashtra unit chief. While Gadkari had polled 6,60,221 votes, Patole got 4,44,212.
The high-profile constituency, which houses the RSS headquarters, has 22,18,259 voters – 11,10, 840 male, 11,07,197 female and 222 transgender persons.
Taking to social media platform X, Gadkari thanked the voters and BJP workers in Nagpur for their support.
He said the BJP workers worked with passion and enthusiasm in the heat and rain.
“Today, after meeting the citizens and activists at the booth, I am confident that the target that we had set will definitely be fulfilled,” he said.
Polls were held in five Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in the first phase of the general elections on Friday.
Apart from Nagpur, the elections were held in Gadchiroli-Chimur, Bhandara-Gondia, Chandrapur and Ramtek seats.
