: Pragmatic politics and calculated risk-taking ensured stunning wins for the BJP in the Pimpri-Chinchwad and the Pune Municipal Corporations, as it put an end to the NCP’s monopoly over the cash-rich civic bodies on Thursday.
The BJP’s unprecedented performance in the PMC bested all previous tallies of the NCP.
A jubilant BJP leader said, “Our win put an end to Ajit Dada’s [NCP leader Ajit Pawar] ‘Dadagiri’”.
The results proved that the BJP’s wins in the 2014 Parliamentary and Assembly polls still cast long shadows on the NCP.
Girish Bapat, senior BJP leader and Pune Guardian Minister, said, “Our win is a massive team effort with careful planning and strategy. It signifies that the people in Pune were craving for change.”
NCP grounded
The BJP’s onslaught has put other parties in the shade. Very few NCP loyalists managed to hold their ground.
While Mayor Prashant Jagtap managed to win from Wanowrie, other stalwarts like five-time corporator Subhash Jagtap were comprehensively beaten.
In the PCMC, the Pimpri Mayor, NCP’s Shakuntala Darade, bit the dust, while all the BJP candidates in her panel (number 15) emerged victorious.
The Congress, too, with its unfocused strategy, suffered heavily. It’s old warhorses, like Kamal Vyawahare, lost heavily to their BJP opponents.
Vandana Chavan, the NCP’s city unit president, said, “The party accepts defeat and will work as a constructive Opposition.” Ms. Chavan tendered her resignation after the results were announced.
Affected by defections
Besides, defections from top party leaders like Reshma Bhosale, Bhosari legislator Mahesh Landge, and senior NCP leaders Azam Pansare and Yashwant Bhosale also proved costly for the NCP in the PCMC area, where the BJP secured 78 seats, a landslide win for the first time.
Issues like the endangered ecology, the Pune Metro Rail project and the Development Plan of the old city played to the BJP’s advantage.
After Thursday’s results, the future looks bleak for the NCP, the Congress, and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (which reduced to a ‘double-digit’ party in the Nashik and Pune Municipal Corporations).
While the NCP has been supplanted by the BJP from its power bases in Pune, the Congress is in danger of being reduced to a non-entity in State politics.
