Congress' Deshmukh brothers win in Latur bucking the BJP wave in Maharashtra

• Dhiraj Deshmukh and Amit Deshmukh, sons of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, are contesting the Maharashtra Assembly election.
• Amit is contesting from urban Latur and Dhiraj is contesting from rural Latur.
• According to the Election Commission, Dhiraj is leading with over 75,000 votes to his name and Amit is leading with 44,000 votes.
  Latur is a Deshmukh stronghold.

Dhiraj Deshmukh — youngest son of the former chief minister, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh— is contesting in the Maharashtra Assembly election for the very first time from the rural seat in Latur.

Dhiraj has over 1 lakh votes to his name accounting for 67.57% of the vote share. He's currently poised to win by a margin of 1,21,482 votes.

His elder brother, Amit Deshmukh, has won that seat for the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2009 and 2014. But, this time around, Amit will be contesting for the Latur’s urban seat — where the INC has also won the past two Assembly elections.

Amit has 1,10,443 votes, which makes up for 52.48% vote share. He's winning by a margin of 40,415.

The Latur constituency has always been known as the stronghold of the Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Also read: Dynasty candidates contesting Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly election 2019

According to the Election Commission, both brothers are currently leading in their respective constituencies even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading for the state. According to the Election Commission, the BJP currently has 97 seats and Shiv Sena has 56, making the total 153 seats between the alliance.

Congress, on the other hand, has 44 seats and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has 55 seats.

Also read: Maharashtra Assembly Election 2019 results, BJP-Sena combine leads in over 163 seats and Congress-NCP in 93

Dhiraj Deshmukh in rural Latur

In rural Latur, Dhiraj is going up against Shiv Sena’s Sachin Deshmukh — no relation — Bharatiya Samaj Party’s (BSP) Khanderao Bhojraj, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) Arjun Waghamare and 12 other candidates.

The election may turn in his favour since BJP workers and voters are unhappy with the fact that the party decided to field a Shiv Sena candidate for the seat without giving a reason for doing so.

Amit Deshmukh in urban Latur

In Latur city, Amit is facing off against BJP’s Shailesh Lohoti, BSP’s Kamble Sambhaji and 17 other candidates.

Amit who is more established than Dhiraj, has stepped out of the shadows of his father and carved a niche for himself.

And he almost has a clean record. In 2017 however Amit was accused of ‘corrupt practices’ during the elections. This was later dismissed by the Supreme Court.

See also:
Dynasty candidates contesting Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly election 2019

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Deshmukh brothers are looking for a Congress win in Latur