Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat is a major Lok Sabha seat of Maharashtra. Where Pratibha Dhanorkar of the Congress party has reached the Parliament by winning the recent elections. This area is situated on the banks of Irai and Jharpat, tributaries of the Wardha river. Chandrapur is also famous for the ancient historical heritage of the Gond period. This area has also been the ruling area of Buddhist and Hindu kings for a long time. Chandrapur was the capital of the Gondwana dynasty from the 12th to the 18th century. The Mahakali Devi and Anchaleshwar temples here are major religious popular places. The fort built by the Gond kings 550 years ago is also a major center here. The Toba Tiger Reserve Park of this area is a major tourist destination for the people.
Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituency is made up of Vani, Arni, Rajura, Chandrapur, Ballarpur and Warora assembly constituencies. Where Bharatiya Janata Party has three seats and Congress has two MLAs. On the other hand, Chandrapur seat was won by an independent candidate. Vani assembly constituency, which came into existence from the first general election of the country, has always been dominated by Congress, but for the last two consecutive elections, Sanjeev Reddy Bodkurwar of Bharatiya Janata Party has been the MLA continuously. Before him, this seat was with Congress, where the party’s Kaswar Vamanrao Bapurao was the MLA. Earlier also Kaswar has represented this seat from 1990 to 2004.
Arni Kelapur Assembly constituency reserved for the Scheduled Tribe category falls entirely under Yavatmal district. The voters of this area have not given a chance to Shiv Sena and NCP to represent them even once. Currently, Sandeep Prabhakar Dhurve of Bharatiya Janata Party is the MLA from here. Before him, Raju Todsam of his party also held this seat. He captured this seat by defeating Shivajirao Moghe of Congress. Shivajirao Moghe is considered to be the most influential leader of this area. The main reason for which is that he won the election on this seat five times.
Rajura assembly seat of Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituency falls under Chandrapur district. From where Subhash Dhote of Indian National Congress is currently an MLA. Dhote had earlier reached the assembly from this seat in 2009, but in 2014 Sanjay Dhote of Bharatiya Janata Party snatched this seat from him and won it for himself. Another reserved seat of this Lok Sabha constituency is Chandrapur, which is reserved for Scheduled Caste category. This seat falls under Chandrapur district. Where in the last election, independent candidate Kishor Gajanan Jorgewar registered a historic victory by defeating BJP’s Nanaji Shamkule. Before Jorgewar, this seat was in the possession of BJP from 1995 to 2019. Where before Nanaji, Sudhir Sachchidanand Mungantiwar had scored a hat-trick of victory. Current MLA Kishor Jorgewar started his political journey as a member of Shiv Sena.
The Ballarpur assembly seat, which came into existence after the delimitation in Maharashtra in 2008, has been completely under the control of the Bharatiya Janata Party till now. Its strong leader Sudhir Mungantiwar has reached the assembly from this area three times in a row. Sudhir has also registered a record of reaching the assembly six times in a row. Before Ballarpur, he had also reached the assembly from Chandrapur seat three times in a row. Mungantiwar has also been given the responsibility of an important department like the Forest Ministry in Eknath Shinde’s cabinet. Before this, he has also served as a minister in many ministries in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.
Warora Assembly seat, known as number 75 in Maharashtra Assembly, is currently vacant because its MLA Pratibha Dhanorkar has won the Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket. She is the wife of Shiv Sena’s traitor leader Suresh Dhanorkar. Warora Assembly constituency also falls completely under Chandrapur district. Before Pratibha Dhanorkar, her husband Suresh Dhanorkar has represented this seat. He won this seat on a Shiv Sena ticket. On this seat, Sanjay Vamanrao Deotale of Congress had won the elections four times in a row from 1995 to 2014.
Chandrapur is called the city of black gold, where there are more than 30 coal mines. There is also Tadoba Tiger Reserve, cement factory and the largest power station of 2340 MW capacity in the country, which fulfills 40 percent of the electricity needs of the state. Ballarpur Industries is the largest paper factory. Teak wood from the dense forests of Chandrapur and Gadchiroli was sent to the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the new Parliament building. A few months ago, to deal with the Maratha reservation movement, the state government decided to give Kunbi certificates to the Marathas, then there was a strong protest against it in Chandrapur, because Kunbis already have OBC status in Vidarbha.
