Melghat assembly seat, which falls under Amravati Lok Sabha constituency of Maharashtra, has been in existence since 1962. Presently this seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Tribal voters are considered to have considerable influence on this seat. Earlier, Congress had absolute rule on this seat, but later this seat was snatched from its hands. Congress, which held this seat from 1967 to 1995, is yearning to win this seat. At present, Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Kevalram Tulsiram Kale in this election.
According to the data of the last assembly elections, there are a total of 2 lakh 77 thousand 523 registered voters here. If we talk about caste figures, according to the 2011 census, there are 171,794 ST voters which is 62.43% of the total voters. Apart from this, there are also 8.4% of the total votes i.e. about 23,115 SC voters. There are 5.1 percent i.e. approximately 14,034 Muslim voters. Rural voters in the assembly are approximately 261,116 as of 2011 which is 94.89% of the total votes.
History of Melghat assembly seat
For the first time, independent Mamraj Khandelwal was sent to the assembly by the public by giving him Vijayashree. But since then this seat remained in the possession of Congress continuously from 1967 to 1995. For the first time in 1995, Bharatiya Janata Party managed to register victory here. In 1995, BJP candidate Patalya Langda Mavaskar defeated Bahujan Samaj Party’s Rajkumar Dayaram Patel by more than 5 thousand votes. In this election, Mavaskar got 37377 votes while Rajkumar got 32209 votes. Later in 1999, Rajkumar Dayaram Patel won here on BJP ticket. In 2004, the public once again sent Rajkumar to the Assembly.
In 2009, Congress once again succeeded in capturing this seat. Then Kale Kevalram Tulsiram had defeated Rajkumar Dayaram Patel in a close contest by about 1 thousand votes. BJP made a comeback in the 2014 elections. This time Bhilaverkar Prabhudas Babulal won on BJP ticket. Whereas Rajkumar Dayaram Patel, who left BJP and contested the elections on NCP ticket, had to face defeat. In the 2019 assembly elections, Rajkumar Dayaram Patel once again changed sides and contested on the ticket of Prahar Janshakti Party and won. Whereas BJP’s Ramesh Mavaskar had to face a crushing defeat.
Keeping an eye on the possibilities of 2024
Talking about the upcoming assembly elections, once again there are possibilities for Bachchu Kadu’s Prahar Janshakti Party. However, there is still a lot of time left for the elections and it is difficult to say when in politics which narrative of which party will turn the election game upside down. Because there is talk that this time the contest may also be triangular.
