Nagpur: After holding election rallies in Chhattisgarh's Bastar and Chandrapur in Maharashtra, in addition to taking out a colourful roadshow down South, in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Nagpur on Wednesday for an election rally in the Ramtek constituency in support of the Shiv Sena (ruling Eknath Shinde faction) candidate Raju Parwe. The rally is bolstering public support for the Shiv Sena candidate. Earlier on March 24, senior state Congress leader and Umred MLA, Raju Parwe, joined Sena in the presence of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. CM Shinde visited the rally grounds in Ramtek on Tuesday night to take stock of the preparations ahead of the Prime Minister's visit. He also took stock of the situation in Nagpur, which received rainfall earlier. CM Shinde instructed party officials to ensure all arrangements are in place for PM Modi's rally. Ramtek will face polling on April 19, which is the first or opening phase of the Lok Sabha polls. Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second-largest after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena. Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. The undivided NCP, part of the opposition alliance, contested 19 seats and won four. Following the split in 2022, the Shiv Sena, which had earlier formed a coalition government with the Congress and NCP, saw Eknath Shinde break away from the party with his loyalists and align with the BJP. He took over as CM later, with the support of the BJP. The Election Commission (EC), thereafter, allotted the Sena's 'bow and arrow' symbol and the party flag to the Shinde faction.
