Jalgaon (Maharashtra) Election 2019: BJP looks to overcome controversies and ace the constituency again

The Jalgaon Lok Sabha seat is one of the 14 parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra that went to polls in the third phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on April 23. AT Patil of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been a sitting Member of Parliament (MP) from the seat since 2009, however, after the surfacing of a scandalous video of him, the party has shunted him in favour of other candidates.

The BJP initially fielded Smita Wagh from Jalgaon but after dissent within the party against Wagh, the party finally fielded Unmesh Patil as its candidate from the constituency.

Unmesh Patil locked horns with Gulabrao Deokar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Rahul Bansode and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's (VBA) Anjali Baviskar. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Jalgaon constituency witnessed 52.28 per cent voter turnout.

The constituency comprises of six Legislative Assembly segments and has a total 1,707,933 eligible voters out of which 909,027 are male and 798,906 female, according to the Election Commission.

After ending the Congress' dominance in the constituency in 1991, the BJP has secured six terms in last seven Lok Sabha elections in Jalgaon. In the 2009 general elections, AT Patil had first won from the constituency after defeating NCP leader Vasantrao Jivanrao More by nearly 1 lakh votes.

Later in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Patil retained the seat pipping Satish Patil of the NCP in a thumping victory. AT Patil received a staggering 6.47 lakh votes at 65.39 per cent vote share while runner up Satish Patil managed to receive some 2.64 lakh votes at 26.68 per cent vote share.