Mumbai, March 28 (IANS): As many as 189 candidates filed 229 nominations for the five Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region that will go to the polls in the first phase on April 19.

The nomination filing process for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections concluded on Wednesday.

According to the state election office, 41 candidates filed 51 nominations in Ramtek, 54 candidates filed 62 nominations in Nagpur, 40 candidates filed 49 nominations in Bhandara Gondiya, 12 nominees filed 19 nominations in Gadchiroli-Chembur, while 36 candidates filed 48 nominations in Chandrapur.

The poll panel has said that a few candidates may have filed double nominations.

Some of the prominent candidates for Phase 1 include Nitin Gadkari (BJP) and Vikas Thakre (Congress) from Nagpur, Rashmi Barve (Congress) and Raju Parwe (Shiv Sena) from Ramtek, Sudhir Mungantiwar (BJP) and Pratibha Dhanorkar (Congress) from Chandrapur, and Namdev Kirsan (Congress) and Ashok Nete (BJP) from Gadchiroli-Chembur.

The scrutiny of the nomination papers will take place on Thursday.