Nagpur: Akola Lok Sabha constituency will see a repeat of battle between BJP’s Sanjay Dhotre and Congress’s Hidayat Patel.It was not clear till filing of the report whether Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Prakash Ambedkar or his wife would contest from the seat. If any of the two contest the election it will become a triangular one instead of a straight one. If Ambedkar fields a strong candidate other than himself or his wife then too the situation would be the same.In 2014, the constituency witnessed a triangular fight between Dhotre, Patel and Ambedkar. Dhotre had polled 4.56 lakh votes, Patel 2.53 lakh and Ambedkar 2.38 lakh. Dhotre had won handsomely benefitting from the Modi wave.Dhotre is a Maratha while Patel is a Muslim. Congress will be banking on Muslim and Dalit votes while BJP will eye Maratha and OBC votes. Dalit leader Ambedkar, who party has the support of Muslims and more backward OBCs, can change the equations.Sources in VBA said that Ambedkar was upset with Congress for fielding a Muslim candidate. He felt that the party had taken the step just to ensure that he does not win.As Dalits support Ambedkar in this constituency, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has never done well here. This time too the trend may be the same.BJP sources said that granting 16% reservation to Marathas would help Dhotre a lot and he would get 100% support from his community. As the Congress candidate is a Muslim, they feel that OBCs would vote for BJP here.Congress leaders feel that this time Dalits and Muslims would not let their votes split and rally behind Patel wholeheartedly. VBA leaders feel that these two communities plus a section of OBCs would support its candidate instead of Congress.

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