JOIN USScarred by scams and controversies, the Congress, on Monday, seared through the five municipal body elections planting its flag of dominance in Maharashtra's heartland— Marathwada.
The state on Sunday went to polls for local self-government in Latur, Chandrapur and Parbhani—recently converted corporations—along with Malegaon and Bhiwandi-Nizampur corporations.
Though the results point toward the Congress emerging as a dominant party in these towns of rural Maharashtra wasn’t too much of a surprise, however, the party’s win in Latur gave the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) a jolt; the NCP was riding a high horse since February, after it managed to leave Congress far behind in the local body elections held in western Maharashtra and emerging mega towns.
Besieged with accusations from all sides, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh proved his hold in Latur by gleaning 49 of the 70 seats and making the NCP eat a humble pie which just managed by garnering 13 seats with Shiv Sena bagging six and others two.
Similarly, in Vidarbha's Chandrapur region, the Congress managed to give Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a shock by bagging 25 out of 66 seats.
While BJP which has always considered Vidarbha as its home-turf, did manage to save its face by garnering 20, whereas NCP barely managed to get three seats. Shiv Sena won in five seats and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) got only one.
In the power-loom town Bhiwandi near Mumbai-Kalyan belt, the Congress upstaged every prediction, scoring an impressive 25 with NCP trailing far behind with eight, Shiv Sena 14, BJP six and others 23.
The scene was no different in another Muslim dominated town— Malegaon— where Congress lifted 25 seats leaving NCP with eight, Shiv Sena with 12 and MNS with just two. Independents and small local parties managed to grab a total of 33 out of 80 seats.
However, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), despite its poor showing in four municipal bodies, managed to make a dent in the Congress dominated Marathwada region by grabbing 30 seats of the 60-member strong Parbani Municial Corporation. The Congress won 23, Shiv Sena eight and BJP and others two each.