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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Beed Lok Sabha seat candidate Pankaja Munde urged voters to cast their franchise on Monday and expressed confidence that the BJP will cross the 400-seat mark under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"I am confident that we will cross the 400 seats mark. When PM Modi has given the slogan of '400 Paar', I think we will be able to cross it. People of the country are going to cast their votes wisely," Pankaja Munde told the media on Monday. While speaking to ANI, the BJP candidate urged voters to come out and cast their votes on the day. Pankaja Munde also remembered her late father and politician Gopinath Munde today and said that his energy and blessings were with her. "It is a very important day. I want to appeal to the people to come out and cast their votes. I miss my father Gopinath Munde but for the last few years, I think his energy has been with me and he is blessing me. Maratha reservation was an important issue but people have understood everything and they are going to cast their votes wisely," Munde told ANI. Earlier in the day, BJP candidate Pankaja Munde performed puja at home and sought the blessings of her mother before casting her vote. Voting in the Beed Lok Sabha constituency of Marathwada, Maharashtra state is underway for the fourth phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Beed Lok Sabha seat witnessing a tough contest between BJP candidate Pankaja Gopinath Munde and Bajrang Manohar Sonwane of the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Chandra Pawar (NCP-SCP). NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) party has once again fielded Bajrang Sonawane from the Beed Lok Sabha seat. Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Bajrang Sonawane had got around 5.09 lakh votes. For the Beed Lok Sabha seat, the BJP named Pankaja Gopinath Munde as its candidate, instead of her sister Pritam Gopinath Rao Munde, who has been holding the seat for the last two terms. Her younger sister, Pritam, has been representing the Beed seat since 2014. Their late father, Gopinath Munde, had won the Beed parliamentary constituency in 2009 and 2014. However, his death in 2014 led to Pritam contesting and winning that year's bypoll from there, along with the 2019 elections. The BJP has given candidature to the third member of the same family, Pankaja. Beed faces a severe water crisis, with many villages experiencing water shortages and residents having to travel to find drinking water. The lack of industries has hindered its development. Reservation is also an important issue. Pankaja Gopinath Munde said that her opponents are trying to polarize the voters in the name of caste. "I am willing to take people of all castes and creeds along," she said. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 contested seats, while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of 23 seats. Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra are being held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. The counting of votes will be held on June 4. (ANI)
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