Nashik: After a decade, two political heavyweights of the city — NCP’s Sameer Bhujbal and Shiv Sena’s Hemant Godse — will again slog it out in the political arena to win the Nashik Lok Sabha seat.Nashik is all set to witness keen contest between the two in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Over 18.5 lakh voters of the constituency would decide their fate on April 29, when the constituency will go to polls. Godse is currently sitting MP of Nashik.Many predict that this time too, the electoral battle in Nashik between the two would be a re-run of the keenly fought electoral battle in 2009, when the two were the main contestants in that Lok Sabha polls. Sameer at that time had defeated Godse, who had contested on MNS ticket, by a margin of over 22,000 votes.Godse joined Sena before 2014 Lok Sabha polls and defeated the veteran political stalwart and Sameer’s uncle, Chaggan Bhujbal, by a margin of over one lakh votes.Sameer’s loyalists claimed that their leader would again drub Godse in the electoral battle as the former had done in 2009. “The writing on the wall is clear for our rival. The voters of Nashik will give a befitting reply to Godse as the NDA government has failed to live up to the expectations of the people,” claimed Sameer.According to him, unemployment and farmers’ distress would be the two main planks on which he would contest. The NCP-Congress camp is going to rake up the demonetisation issue, which he claimed, had caused immense hardships to the farmers.“Wherever I have been during the campaign, I saw the seething rage and discontentment among the voters, especially farmers and youth, due to agrarian distress and joblessness. The voters are waiting to get rid of the present government,” he said.The guiding force for Sameer in this polls would be his uncle, Chaggan, who is known for his political acumen. His popularity among a sizeable section of the Nashik voters is still intact.Sameer started the ground work to contest the polls about two months ago criss-crossing the rural belts of the constituency and interacting with the voters. However, Godse is confident that Sena-BJP combine would win like 2014.“On Sunday we will kick off our campaign reach out to voters in the city and rural areas. We will convey to them what work we have done in the last five years,” Godse said. Out of the six assembly segments in Nashik, the NDA has five MLAs.“The strength of BJP and Sena in Nashik Municipal Corporation is 100 out of 122 members. Our alliance also has strong presence in zilla parishad and panchayat samiti. Moreover, we will highlight the work done by the NDA government at Centre as well as at state level,” he added.According to Godse, the voters have seen the work done by Sameer during his tenure as MP and his work as the Lok Sabha member. “They did not do anything for public benefit. They did not keep any contact with people. They have done only handful of work like building flyover. We have done much more for the constituency,” claimed Godse.

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