Nagpur South West Assembly Result: Devendra Fadnavis Trounces Congress's Praful Gudadhe After 10 Years

Maharashtra Election Results: BJP's Devendra Fadnavis pulled off another victory against his Congress opponent Praful Gudhade.

Nagpur South West Assembly Election Result: The Devendra Fadnavis-vs-Praful Gudadhe battle in the Nagpur South West Assembly constituency was one of the 76 direct fights between the Congress and the BJP in Maharashtra this year. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis scored a major victory over Congress Praful Gudadhe in the second contest between the two leaders in the Nagpur South West Assembly constituency.

Devendra Fadnavis received 1,29,401 votes, defeating Congress candidate Prafulla Vinodrao Gudadhe by a margin of 39,710. Gudadhe received 89,691 votes. 

Sources said that Devendra Fadnavis is likely to become the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra, owing to the BJP's high strike rate in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The two had last faced each other in 2014. In 2019, the Congress replaced the former corporator with former MLA Ashish Deshmukh in the constituency but failed to win. This year, the party brought back Gudadhe. 

The Nagpur South West constituency recorded a voter turnout of 54.59% on November 20. The Ramtek segment recorded the highest turnout in the Nagpur district, with 71.8% of electors turning out to vote. The final turnout figure in Maharashtra was pegged at 66.05%, which is the highest in 30 years.

The Maharashtra Assembly elections for all 288 seats were held in a single phase on November 20. Both Mahayuti and the Mahavikas Aghadi launched fierce campaigns against one another.

This was one of the most crucial elections in the history of Maharashtra's assembly as it follows two years of political turmoil. Two of the biggest parties in the state, the Shiv Sena and the NCP, split after surprising rebellions by the leaders closest to the chiefs of the respective parties. Both Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar were shell-shocked after their aides Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar orchestrated rebellions to secure the CM and Deputy CM's seats, respectively. While the Shiv Sena split in 2022, the NCP split in 2023.

In this election, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance sought to maintain its hold on power, while the opposition coalition, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), aimed to build on its recent successes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.