In Maharashtra bypolls, BJP wins Palghar, loses Gondia to NCP

MUMBAI: Maharashtra may well have delivered the face-saver for BJP on Thursday. The only one of three previously held Lok Sabha seats it retained was Palghar, a tribal borough where it defeated the Shiv Sena candidate in a bitter contest between the two allies. But the party lost the Bhandara-Gondia constituency in Vidarbha to the NCP, which fought the bypoll in alliance with the Congress.

While the Palghar win provides respite to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and will help keep away challenges to his leadership in Maharashtra ahead of the 2019 general and assembly elections, NCP’s victory in Gondia comes as a boost to opposition morale and unity at a time when BJP and Sena remain at loggerheads, with hardly any signs of burying their differences ahead of next year’s big battle.
While the results were a mixed bag for BJP, the victory in Palghar was by a margin of a little less than 30,000 votes in a multi-cornered contest where anti-incumbency votes were divided. The Sena too has enough to introspect as it lost despite putting up local boy Shriniwas Wanga, son of the late BJP MP Chintaman Wanga; BJP in a last-minute scramble had to rope in ex-Congress minister Rajendra Gavit as its candidate for the reserved constituency.

The campaigning took ties between the allies to a new low: Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made personal allegations against the CM, accusing him of using coercion and money power during the campaign.
The barbs continued after Thursday’s results. Fadnavis said parties in government should not contest against each other, while Uddhav gloated over the fact that BJP had won only 2 of 11 seats across India where bypolls were held. “Four years ago, when BJP came to power, it was said BJP would rule for the next 25 years. But the situation has changed in just four years. The BJP’s downfall has begun,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath had come to Palghar to campaign but had failed to win the Kairana LS seat in his own state, he pointed out. He also accused Adityanath of “insulting” Chhatrapati Shivaji and the people of Maharashtra.
Fadnavis tried to strike a reconciliatory tone saying, “We are not against a BJP-Sena alliance, nor do we believe that our alliance will break down. Efforts have to be made both ways. We are ready for talks with the Shiv Sena.”
State Congress president Ashok Chavan said the outcome reflected the “anti-Modi mood” in the country. Chavan said Thackeray blamed the BJP but at the same time was not keen on snapping ties with it. Both Chavan and NCP leader Nawab Malik claimed BJP won the Palghar seat owing to a split in opposition votes.
In Bhandara-Gondia too, it was Fadnavis who had led the BJP campaign, while the Congress-NCP campaign was spearheaded by Nana Patole, who quit the seat and party, necessitating the bypoll, and NCP leader Praful Patel. Patole had quit the BJP last year alleging that the Modi government was ignoring farmers.
Patole joined the Congress and was expected to contest the by-election as Congress nominee if the NCP nominated Praful Patel. In 2014, Patole rode the Modi wave to defeat Patel by a margin of over two lakh votes. But following the intervention of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and NCP president Sharad Pawar, it was decided that neither Patole nor Patel would contest but that there would be a combined opposition candidate. The opposition unity strategy seemed to have worked, with NCP nominee Madhukar Kukade winning by a comfortable margin against BJP’s Hemant Patle.