Maharashtra: BJP emerges as single largest party in Nagar Panchayat poll result

While voting for 73 per cent of the seats was held on December 21, the 27 per cent OBC (Other Backward Classes) seats converted into open category went to polls on January 19.

While the OBC seats were reserved in the local bodies by the SEC, the Supreme Court put a stay on these reservations on December 6 stating that OBC reservation can’t be given until the state government fulfills triple tests — setting up a dedicated commission for collecting empirical data on the OBC population, specifying the proportion of reservation, and ensuring that the cumulative share of reserved seats does not breach 50 per cent of total seats.

On Wednesday, the SEC announced the results of the 97 Nagar Panchayats in 31 districts. Besides the four largest parties, independent candidates won 206 seats, smaller parties 82 seats, the CPI (M) 11 seats, the BSP and the MNS four each, and other parties three seats. The election on the 11 seats of the Shirdi Nagar Panchayat could not be held as no nominations were received on them. Results of the nine Nagar Panchayats of Gadchiroli will be announced on Thursday.

Devendra Fandavis, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Opposition Leader in the state assembly, said the results showed that the BJP remained the most prominent political party in the state. Accusing the state’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of “misusing power” during the elections, he said, “The Congress, the NCP and Shiv Sena combine did everything to corner the BJP. They used money and muscle power to check the BJP in polls. But the results have more than established that BJP remains the leading political party. It still enjoys the public mandate.”
The state’s ruling alliance’s leaders, for their part, said the results showed that the people have voted in favour of the MVA and have rejected the BJP in the polls.

“The MVA has got 80 per cent seats in Nagar Panchayat elections. This means that the BJP has been rejected by the people. The people have voted in favour of the NCP and Shiv Sena. While in some places the NCP has fought on its own, it has fought with Sena in some places. And all three parties (the third being the Congress) fought the polls separately in other places. In spite of the division of votes, the people have voted in favour of MVA,” said Nawab Malik, NCP minister and party’s chief national spokesperson.

Echoing Malik, Nana Patole, state Congress president, said, “With the result of Nagar Panchayat elections, the people have voted in favour of MVA and have rejected the BJP.”

Patole further said the results have been satisfactory for his party. “The performance of the Congress has improved. The Congress is leading in Vidarbha while the party has opened its account in Konkan,” said Patole.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the MVA has got good success in the election. “The analysis of the election is that BJP will have to remain in opposition for many years. The results show that BJP shouldn’t play with the king which is the voters. They have shown them their place,” said Raut.

In the first phase, 1,458 seats went to polls on December 21 while voting on 336 seats took place on January 18. The remaining nine seats were elected unopposed with only one candidate filing the nomination.