BJP-Shiv Sena combine makes a clean sweep in Aurangabad

The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance on Thursday won all the nine assembly segments in Aurangabad district and also fared well in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra.

Marathwada consists of eight districts, including Aurangabad, and accounts for 46 of the 288 assembly seats in the state.

In the region, the Sena won 13 seats in the October 21 elections as compared to 11 in 2014. The BJP also improved its tally from 14 five years ago to 16 this time.

The Congress won seven seats this time as compared to nine in 2014.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained its 2014 tally of eight seats.

Thus, the ruling Sena-BJP alliance won 29 of the 46 seats in Marathwada.

The Sena-BJP alliance's performance is creditable considering the fact that only six months ago, the AIMIM had won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat.

"This is for the first time that this alliance has won all the seats in Aurangabad. There was annoyance in party workers after the AIMIM won the Lok Sabha polls from here.

"Our parties did their best this time after a major defeat," Shiv Sena district president and Member of Legislative Council Ambadas Danve told PTI.

The lone seat won by the AIMIM in 2014, Aurangabad Central, went to Pradip Jaiswal of the Sena this time.

In Vaijapur, the Sena candidate, ZP member Ramesh Bornare, defeated NCP's Abhay Patil Chikatgaonkar.

In Phulambri, also in Aurangabad, assembly speaker Haribhau Bagde and Minister of State for Industries Atul Save (Aurangabad East) defeated their opponents, Kalyan Kale of the Congress and Gaffar Quadri of the AIMIM, respectively.

Pankaja Munde, state Cabinet minister and daughter of the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, lost from Parli in Beed district to her cousin and NCP candidate Dhananjay Munde.

Minister of State for Textile Arjun Khotkar (Shiv Sena) lost to Kailas Gorantyal of the Congress from Jalna city.

In Ausa in Latur district, BJP candidate Abhimanyu Pawar, who worked as personal assistant to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis before entering the poll fray, won by defeating Baswaraj Patil of the Congress.

Dhiraj and Amit Deshmukh of the Congress, sons of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, won from Latur Rural and Latur City, respectively.

Rana Jagjit Singh, who recently entered the BJP from the NCP and contested elections from Tuljapur, defeated Congress veteran Madhukarrao Chavan.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan won from his traditional seat of Bhokar in Nanded district. He defeated Shrinivas alias Bapusaheb Gorthekar of the BJP.

Independent candidate from Kannad (Aurangabad) Harshwardhan Jadhav lost to Shiv Sena candidate Udaysingh Rajput.

Sanjay Shirsat of the Shiv Sena, who faced a tough challenge from BJP rebel Raju Shinde, won from Aurangabad West for a third consecutive time.

Prashant Bamb of the BJP also completed a hat-trick from Gangapur where he defeated Santhosh Mane of the NCP.

Ratnakar Gutte, who contested on the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha ticket from Gangakhed (Parbhani), defeated Vishal Kadam of the Shiv Sena.

Shyamsundar Dagdoji Shinde of the Shetkari Kamgar Paksh won from Loha in Nanded by defeating his nearest rival Shivkumar Narayanrao Narangale of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

Total seats in the region (eight districts) 46: BJP 16, Shiv Sena 13, Congress 7, NCP 8 and Others 2.