Pawar left reeling after NCP suffers loss in its bastion
PUNE: Barely a day before campaigning for Maharashtra’s civic body elections ended, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar addressed a rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad where he likened Devendra Fadnavis to a blind man putting his hands on the genitals, an adage often shared in rural areas.
Though Pawar left the adage incomplete, it reflected his desperation and perhaps even a sense of foreboding about an imminent rout in a town he, and later his nephew Ajit, controlled for years.
“The people voted for development, which was our main plant. They saw that Fadnavis is committed to development of this town,” said Mahesh Landge , once a close-aide of Pawar junior.
In Pune, too, the BJP grew from 26 in 2012 to 98, dislodging the NCP. The party expanded its base in suburban areas by opening its doors to aspirants coming from other parties.
According to political observers, among the factors that worked in the party’s favour was the foundation of metro rail project which was in the pipeline for more than a decade but did not move forward during NCP regime.
Having lost power at the Centre and the state in 2014, the NCP had a make-or-break fight to maintain hold over Pune and PimpriChinchwad Municipal Corporations, the two civic bodies with a total budget of Rs. 9,200 crore.
By losing both, the NCP has lost its last bastion in urban Maharashtra.