Routs NCP at Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad

While the Shiv Sena finished on top of a hung BMC on Thursday, across Maharashtra, however, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made major gains in elections held for municipal bodies in other major cities of Maharashtra.

It won both the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation routing the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). NCP had been holding both the corporations for the last ten years.

BJP won 100 out of 162 seats while NCP could get 31 in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) at the writing of this report. The Congress that once ruled PMC managed to win only 10 seats. Shiv Sena got only 10 seats. MNS could get one while others got three. BJP was leading since the counting began in the morning and was at the front throughout the counting. Many new faces of BJP who were not known till elections managed to defeat several established leaders of NCP and Congress.

PCMC is known as NCP and Ajit Pawar’s stronghold. But BJP swept the civic body elections by winning 78 seats out of a total of 128. NCP could get only 35 while Shiv Sena got nine seats. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) could get one while Congress ended up with winning no seat.

Girish Bapat, guardian minister of Pune, said this was the victory of development. “We have been concentrating on development since we came to power. We passed the development plan that was pending for two decades. We started Metro. Voters voted for development. This is the victory of party workers who worked hard.” Meanwhile Supriya Sule accepted the defeat saying it was major setback for the party.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena was on way to retaining control over the 131seat Thane Municipal Corporation.

NAGPUR: Nagpur appeared to be going the BJP way, with the party leading in 70 of the civic body's 151 seats, the Congress in 20 and the NCP and Shiv Sena in one seat each.