Civic poll results exposing BJP’s weakness in rural Maharashtra

Civic poll results exposing BJP’s weakness in rural Maharashtra

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Thursday, 21 April 2016 AT 03:03 PM IST

    

blog, civic poll, poll result, BJP, Nagar panchayats, Zilla Parishad, Panchayat samitis, Maharashtra,Camil Parkhe

In the recently concluded elections to the newly formed local self government civic bodies (Nagar Panchayats) in Maharashtra, the Congress has emerged as the leading party, the NCP and Shiv Sena have won equal seats while BJP was relegated to the last- fourth place. The number of the Nagar Panchayats in the state which went to the polls was very minuscule, only six and there were also bypolls to a few municipal corporations, Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis. Nonetheless, the poll verdict needs to be taken seriously by all political parties in the state as they are indication of the people’s opinion about these parties.

The six Nagar Panchayats had altogether 102 seats, of these, Congress has won 21, NCP and Shiv Sena have won 20 seats each while the BJP has won only five. The independents and local civic fronts have captured as many as 36 seats. Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman  Sena does not figure in these elections.

The Nagar Panchayats which went to the polls on Sunday, April 17, were Kudal in Sindhudurg district, Lonand in Satara district, Malshiras, Mohol and Madha in Solapur district, and Lohara in Osmanabad district. Of these, in Kudal, Narayan Rane-led Congress has won nine of the total 17 seats with the Shiv Sena winning six seats and BJP and an independent winning one seat each.

In Madha, the ruling NCP has lost power after winning only four of the total 17 seats and the independents winning 12, the highest seats in the civic body. In Malshiras Nagar Panchayat, independents have won all the 17 seats. In Lonand, NCP has won 8, Congress 6 while the BJP and an independent have won two and one seats, respectively. In Lohara, Shiv Sena has won 8 seats, the NCP 4, Congress 3 and independents 2 seats. In Mohol, Shiv Sena has won 6 seats, the highest number of seats, the NCP has won 4, independents 3, the Congress and BJP 2 each.

BJP was not able bag a single seat in Lohara, Malshiras and Madha Nagar Panchayats. The results of the Nagar Panchayats polls and bypolls to various municipal corporations should not be viewed in isolation. Exactly the same trends were also noticed in the elections to 19 Nagar Panchayats held only two months ago. That time, too, the Congress had emerged winner with the largest number of seats (105), followed by NCP with 80 seats, and the BJP which had won 39 seats was thrown to the fourth place in the state.

The BJP-Shiv Sena had unitedly won 44 of the total 48 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra in April 2014, crushing the Congress- NCP combine with a humiliating defeat. In the subsequent Maharashtra assembly elections, BJP and Shiv Sena fought against each others but were able to retain their supremacy over Congress and NCP. The subsequent civic poll verdicts however is an indication that the BJP and Shiv Sena which are partners in the Union and Maharashtra governments have not succeeded in wiping out the influence of the Congress and NCP in the state.

One of the factors responsible for this phenomenon could also be that the BJP and Shiv Sena are not convincingly playing their roles as ruling alliance partners either at the Union or state levels. Their distrust towards each other and the Shiv Sena’s open criticism of the Union and state governments despite being part of these governments has been increasing. All political parties need to decipher the message the electorates have given through these representative poll verdict and take their corrective measures before the next polls.

- CAMIL PARKHE