Maharashtra polls: Three Chandrakants and four Rohinis vying for Jalgaon's Muktainagar seat

Maharashtra Polls

The Muktainagar Assembly constituency is one of the 288 constituencies in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.  It is located in Jalgaon district and is one of the eleven assembly constituencies in the district. Muktainagar is part of the Raver Lok Sabha constituency, which also includes five other assembly segments: Chopda, Raver, Bhusawal, Jamner, and Malkapur.

According to the Election Commission officials, the constituency has the highest number of candidates with the same name or similar monikers.

Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has fielded sitting MLA Chandrakant Nimba Patil from this seat. Meanwhile, NCP (Sharad Pawar) has given the ticket to Rohini Khadse from this seat.

Chandrakant Nimba Patil is the current Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Muktainagar constituency. In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, independent candidate Chandrakant Nimba Patil won the seat with 91,092 votes, defeating BJPs Rohini Eknath Khadse who received 89,135 votes. VBAs Rahul Ashok Patil secured 9,751 votes.

Muktainagar has a mixed population, comprising various communities engaged in agriculture and small businesses. This constituency has seen strong representation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with Eknathrao Khadse previously serving as a significant figure in local politics.

The Muktainagar constituency is located in the Jalgaon district, which has 3616403 registered voters, including 1864248 male voters, 1752012 female voters, and 143 third gender voters.

In the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections, BJPs Eknath Khadse won the seat with 85,657 votes. SHS candidate Chandrakant Nimbaji Patil received 75,949 votes, NCPs Arun Pandurang Patil got 6,499 votes, and Congresss Yogendra Singh Bhagwan Patil received 4,495 votes.

In the 2019 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Muktainagar constituency had 291281 registered voters but only saw 194414 votes cast—a turnout of 66.7 %.  Chandrakant Nimba Patil defeated Shiv Sena candidate Chandrakant Patil, who got 75,949 votes (41.38%). NCP candidate Arun Patil stood third with 6,499 votes (3.54%). The total number of valid votes polled was 1,83,527.