Surprise civic win makes Rahul study Parbhani

The 130-year-old Congress party is undergoing a overhauling process after it has lost power in most states and all local bodies elections.

From once having dominated over village panchayats and various district bodies and state governments, the party has now lost it all to NCP in late nineties and later to BJP across India beginning 2014.

However, in one corner of Maharashtra in the underdeveloped Marathwada is Parbhani, a small town that has become an example that the Congress can still lead.

Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi came on a visit to Nanded and Parbhani to understand and study the success of Congress there.

Not only the party has managed to retain power at the municipal corporation of Parbhani but Congress has also grabbed power in all local bodies and cooperative institutions. Surprised with this miraculous success, Gandhi visited Parbhani on Friday to know more of “Parbhani pattern” of victory and to see if it can be replicated elsewhere.

“Parbhani is India’s second district after in Punjab that has 98% irrigated land but the city is still thirsty as there is no permanent source of drinking water,” Bhagwanrao Waghmare, leader of the House in PMC said.

Parbhani, a city of around 3.50 lakh population, was upgraded as a corporation from municipal council in 2012. Water, gutter and meters are the common issues that every corporation has to sort out and still citizens seem unhappy with every political party that rules the corporation.

“NCP had its hold on each and every local body and cooperative institutes such as District Cooperative Bank (DCB), Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) and even village level credit societies including municipal council since its formation in 1999,” said Suresh Warpudkar, husband of Anita, the mayor of Parbhani Municipal Corporation (PMC).

The party worked on different levels -- directly with the people and also to plug the division of votes they convinced All India Majalis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leaders to join Congress, offered them tickets in the corporation polls and also convinced the people to vote for them. Out of the total 65 seats, Congress won 33 seats on its own and got support of one independent. The party grabbed power from NCP after almost 25 years.

“We assigned work to 40 party workers in each booth. They remained in contact with voters and ensured they all came in large number on election day,” Warpudkar said. He added that except Zilla Parishad, Congress is in power in the municipal corporation, Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), District Cooperative Bank (DCB) and even at all cooperative credit societies. “When BJP is grabbing power from Congress and NCP, it was our joint action plan which has proved that we have strength at the grass root level,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi was impressed with the planning and execution of the various activities undertaken. He is satisfied to know that Congress is giving a fight to the BJP,” said Bhagwanrao Waghmare, leader of the House in PMC.

Warpudkar, the former minister of state said NCP lost the stronghold because despite being in power at municipal council since 1999 as it failed to provide daily drinking water to the citizens. “We have assurance to provide drinking water from Yeldari dam which was stucked since the past 20 years. People have shown faith in us and voted for Congress,” he said.