Mumbai: Continuing with its winning streak, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP managed to wrest power in the Congress-dominated Latur civic body and retain power in the Chandrapur municipal corporation in Maharashtra. The Congress, however, managed to wrest power from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Parbhani civic body.
The Congress has ruled Latur for the last four decades. It is the stronghold of former Congress chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and now represented by his son, Amit. Not only the municipality, but Vilasrao Deshmukh also had complete sway over the constituency that he represented for several successive terms till his death in 2012.
The BJP also won the Chandrapur municipal polls represented by the BJP’s Sudhir Mungantiwar, Cabinet minister for finance and planning.
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From being non-existent in Latur, the BJP has indeed made deep inroads in the area. Observers say this is largely because of the goodwill the party had earned through the Fadnavis regime’s Jaldoot Express programme. To beat the drought in Latur, the government transported water to the parched city through rail containers. The gesture has also made the BJP’s Sambhajirao Patil-Nilangekar, now minister, extremely popular in district politics.
In the 65-member Parbhani civic body, the Congress increased its tally from 23 seats in 2012 to 31 seats this time. On the other hand, the NCP, which had 30 corporators in the outgoing civic body, saw its tally come down to 18. The BJP, which had just 2 corporators in 2012, increased its tally to 8.
The Sena, too, fared badly. From 8 seats in 2012, its tally has come down to 6 seats this time. The result has raised a question mark over the leadership of senior Sena Minister for Public Transport Diwakar Raote, who also happens to be the guardian minister of Parbhani district.
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The BJP’s victory in Chandrapur municipality is largely because of the efforts of Sudhir Mungantiwar, Minister for Finance and Planning. In the 66-member Chandrapur civic body, the BJP doubled its 2012 tally of 18 to 36 seats. The ruling BJP has been steadily spreading its influence in the state since the civic polls held earlier. The party came very close to grabbing power on its own in the prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections — the Shiv Sena was just a few seats ahead.
The BJP has also swept most of the civic bodies in the other major towns — Pune, Pirmpri-Chinchwad, Amravati and Nagpur. Most of the zilla parishads are also in the control of the saffron party. The results have prompted political observers to say that the BJP may well go in for mid-term polls to shake off the Shiv Sena from its back. Over the past few months, the Sena has been giving its alliance partner difficult times, even criticising the Fadnavis leadership from public platforms. Fadnavis’s stocks have been rising ever since the BJP swept municipal polls outside Mumbai. Even in BMC, the party came a very close second, a few seats behind its alliance partner in the govt, the Shiv Sena
