Mumbai, April 13: The poll results of the four municipal bodies in Maharashtra have dealt a huge blow to the Congress and particularly to chief minister Ashok Chavan.
In an embarrassment for the Congress, its alliance partner, the Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP, which contested on its own in Navi Mumbai, retained one of the richest civic bodies in India.
To rub salt in Chavan’s wounds, all the three candidates for whom he had campaigned in Navi Mumbai were defeated.
As if this was not enough, the Congress also failed to wrest power from the Shiv Sena- BJP in Aurangabad. The CM had made it a prestige issue, with seven Congress ministers camping in Aurangabad to deliver the goods. The Congress had also entered into a pre- poll alliance with both the NCP and the Shahar Pragati Aghadi ( SPA), formed by the Sena rebels. None of these moves succeeded against the saffron combine.
The poll results haven’t brought much cheer for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena ( MNS) either. The party drew a blank in Navi Mumbai and won only one seat in
Aurangabad where large crowds had thronged to Raj Thackeray’s rallies.
Only in Badlapur did the party manage to save face, winning six of the 50 seats.
For the Sena- BJP, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation has come as a consolation prize after losing the assembly elections.
They also managed to thwart the MNS factor in both Aurangabad and Badlapur.
It was cheers as well as tears for Sena MP from Aurangabad Chandrakant
B. Khaire. While his party is short of just five members to attain simple majority, his son Hrishikesh Khaire lost because the local BJP activists did not support his campaign.
NCP minister Ganesh Naik, however, is smiling from ear to ear in Navi Mumbai. He had opposed an alliance with the Congress.
The talks between the two parties failed at the eleventh hour because of Naik’s insistence.
But he managed to deliver one of the
cashrich local bodies to the party which won 55 of the 89 seats, increasing its tally from 48 in the outgoing civic body.
Chief minister Chavan will rue campaigning in Navi Mumbai. Not only were the three candidates for whom he campaigned defeated, there was further humiliation for the Congress as it even lost the status of the second largest party.
The party’s district president Shashikant Bhoir and leader of the Opposition in the civic agency Namdeo Bhagat could not retain their seats.
In Aurangabad, Chavan had entrusted the task of poll management to his confidante and minister of state for food and civil supplies Abdul Sattar.
The Congress was also banking on the SPA and an alliance with the NCP. But several factors hurt the party’s chances, which included withdrawal of transport minister Radhakrishna Wikhe- Patil in the last stage of campaign and Sattar’s alleged kicking of his own party activists.
Also, though the Congress and the NCP contested the elections
together, their workers didn’t co- operate and the parties ended up fighting each other in eight wards.
The results in both Aurangabad and Navi Mumbai are likely to increase the friction between the two alliance partners in the state. Chavan and NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal were engaged in a verbal duel in the run- up to the polls, with the latter calling the CM a chef in a five- star hotel.
In Ambernath, Sena won only 16 of the 50 seats and needs at least 10 more to hold on to power. The Congress- NCP- RPI with 20 seats stands a better chance.
—Agencies