Independents captured over 1 lakh votes

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

In this Lok Sabha election, out of 37 candidates, there were as many as 32 independent candidates. Many of these candidates, who had not done any notable work in the constituency, contested the election merely for the thrill of it. Despite this, all these independents collectively garnered 1,07,532 votes. Among the independent candidates, Harshwardhan Jadhav, Surendra Gajbhare, and Ravindra Bodkhe received a noteworthy number of votes. Some of the 29 independent candidates received votes ranging from 593 to 1,200, with 12 of them receiving more than 2,000 votes.

Interestingly, Jadhav had secured 2,83,798 votes in the last election, preventing Shiv Sena's candidate Chandrakant Khaire from winning. However, this time, Jadhav couldn't replicate his success, as voters limited him to just 39,654 votes. Another independent candidate, who was not much in the limelight, Surendra Gajbhare, received 10,719 votes. Ravindra Bodkhe received 6,250 votes, Sanjay Shirsat got 3,809 votes, and Dr. Jeevan Rajput, who was leading in the campaign and hoardings from the beginning, had to be content with just 3,788 votes.