Congress wins big in Nanded municipal polls

Beginning of the end for BJP, says Ashok Chavan; NCP, AIMIM fail to open their account

Former Chief Minister and Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan in a celebratory mood in Mumbai following the party’s victory in the Nanded civic polls on Thursday.

In it’s biggest victory since 2014, the Congress on Thursday won the much-hyped Nanded-Waghola Municipal Coporation election by bagging 69 of the 81 seats. None of the parties, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had roped in top state leaders including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for campaigning, managed to reach double digits.

Chavan’s hometown

Nanded is the hometown of Maharashtra Congress president and former CM Ashok Chavan and the victory has also put to rest questions over his leadership. “This is the beginning of the end of BJP rule. In Lok Sabha, Nanded had stopped the Modi wave and even now this victory of Congress will start BJP’s downfall,” said Mr. Chavan, speaking to reporters in Mumbai.

Asked whether the party will now unite under his leadership to take on the state government, he said, “It is important to work as a team. If we play as a team and each player scores, the party will score. One of the reasons why we won is that the EVMs were not tampered with.”

He said the people of Nanded have rejected the BJP-led state and central governments for its anti-people policies. “The rise in petrol and diesel prices, absolute mismanagement of farm loan waiver scheme and disastrous implementation of GST and demonetisation has fuelled anger among the voters and they expressed it through their vote,” he said.

AIMIM draws a blank

The results also marked Muslim community’s rejection of the Owaisi brothers and the All India Majlis-e-Itehadul Muslimeen. Nanded was the first city in the State where AIMIM made its debut in 2012 civic polls by winning 11 seats. This time it has drawn a blank despite campaigning by the Owaisi bothers. “The people have realised that only Congress is the option against BJP,” said Mr. Chavan.

While the Congress went in to celebration mode, the BJP which was desperate to break Mr Chavan’s dominance, suffered a major setback by winning only six seats. It had put Skill Development Minister Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar in charge of the polls. Sena MLA Pratap Chikhlikar too had switched loyalty to the BJP. It had also roped in outgoing Congress corporators..

“We may not have won seats, but our voting percentage has increased from 3% to 19%,” said Mr Patil-Nilangekar.

While the Sena won one seat, the Nationalist Congress Party drew a blank.