Mumbai: Father is father ‘Baap Baap asto’; this was the message written on the hoardings after badly defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state party president Chandrakant Patil’s in their home ground.
Not even a single seat was secured by the BJP in Kolhapur. With this, the NCP has coined a new slogan, "BJP-mukt Kolhapur".
The BJP had fielded two candidates in Kolhapur, both sitting MLAs. One was Amal Mahadik, who was defeated by Congress’s Rutuja Patil, and Suresh Halwankar was trounced by Congress rebel Prakash Avhad.
Then, a huge hoarding and banners were put up across Kolhapur. With a large picture of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, the poster sptated, ‘Baap Baap Asto’.
The grand alliance managed to secure seven assembly constituencies in the district. Congress won 4, NCP 2 and Jansurajya Party won 1 seat. At two places, people voted for Shiv Sena.
It is said that Congress rebel Prakash Avhad would join the grand alliance. In the 2014 election, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had won 8 of the 10 seats, this time they manage to bag 2 seats only. The issue related to flood has affected the BJP-Shiv Sena combine.
There was a time when leaders and party workers were deserting the party en masse, and others were losing hopes. Then, Pawar played a master stroke of visiting ED office, which led the government to go on a back foot.
Another incident that turned the tide in Pawar's favour was when he was addressing a rally and it started to pour down, but Pawar continued with the speech and stopped when the was done with it. On seeing this, people became emotional, Pawar again showed his power and scored some brownie points.
