English
Mumbai, Feb 23: It is saffron power all the way as results rolled out for the Maharashtra Civic elections 2017 on Thursday. The Congress and the NCP have been wiped out while the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, even though not an alliance any more, are blowing the victory trumpet across Maharashtra. It is a dismal record for the Congress and the NCP, which now seem to have lost ground across Maharashtra and it now seems that it is a long way to go before the two parties can get themselves back together and get going in the state.
From the trends that poured out till 12:30 pm, it was clear that the mood of Maharashtra, even at the local level, is not in favour of the Congress and the NCP. At 12.50 pm, the Shiv Sena was leading in over 91 seats in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, in 27 seats in Thane Municipal Corporations, the BJP was leading in 44 seats in Nagpur Municipal Corporation and in 52 seats Pune Municipal Corporation. The BJP was also leading in Nashik, Amravati and Akola. (Read here for LIVE results)
With the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena parting ways, the Congress and the NCP appear to be facing even bigger defeats. In Mumbai, it was believed that the Sena-BJP split may have the urban voters voting for the Congress. But that is certainly not the case as the Congress has been washed out with just a little above 10 leads. Even as the Sena took the lead and was way ahead in Mumbai, Thane and Ratnagiri, the BJP was leading in Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, Amravati and Akola.
It was only at the Zilla Parishad level that the fight was neck and neck as per the trends that emerged till afternoon. The Municipal Corporations showed the Congress struggling to get fetch seats.
The results also reflect how demonetisation is too small an issue when it comes to elections for Municipal Corporations and other civic bodies. Local issues like amenities, development, cleanliness etc take precedence over national issues like demonetisation and the Congress’s anti-demonetisation pitch has been of no help in Maharashtra.
As results come out, it is becoming clear that the Maharashtra civic bodies have been saffronised in different shades of orange (the BJP and the Shiv Sena).
Disclaimer: This story has been filed at 1:20 pm on February 23. The counting figures are subject to change.
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