Mumbai, April 19 -- The ruling BJP is battling hard to retain its stronghold over Vidarbha where it had swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, while the Congress has little to lose but everything to gain, as half of the ten constituencies in the region go to elections in the first phase on Friday.
With no apparent wave in the air and not much of enthusiasm witnessed among voters, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to cash in on Ram Mandir temple issue and use its organisational strength to reach out to voters in the five poll-bound constituencies - Nagpur, Ramtek (SC), Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondiya and Gadchiroli-Chimur (ST) - in the region.
The BJP is also hoping that the two rallies ad...