The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) took sweet revenge of its loss from Beed Lok Sabha constituency to the BJP four months ago, winning five of the six Assembly seats in the district, considered a stronghold of senior leader Gopinath Munde.
The sole BJP winner was Pankaja Munde-Palve, daughter of the party General Secretary, from his hometown Parali.
Notably, three of the winner of the Assembly seats are the leaders who had revolted against Munde in the past. These are Prakash Solanke (Majalgaon), Suresh Dhas (Ashti) and PWD Minister Vimal Mundada (Kaij).
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Jaydutt Kshirsagar (Beed City) and Badamrao Pandit (Georai) are the two other NCP winners from the district.
In April Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Munde had trounced NCP’s Ramesh Adaskar by a margin over one lakh votes. In fact, the former Deputy Chief Minister had polled 5,53,994 votes, the highest by any candidate in Maharashtra.
On the contrary, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and his predecessor and now Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh have seen their supporters emerging victorious in their districts.
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In Mr. Chavan’s home district Nanded, Congress won all the six seats it contested, while its ally NCP pocketed two. The saffron alliance could not even open its account in Nanded.
In Latur, Mr. Deshmukh home turf, Congress won four of the five Assembly seats it contested.