BJP steamrolls rival party's strongholds in rural Maharashtra

Mumbai: Destroying the perception that political parties thrive in city-wise strongholds, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has created a big dent in rural Maharashtra by winning maximum seats in the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections. Earlier, rural Maharashtra was a bastion of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) but this time the BJP demolished many forts of the two parties, particularly in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.

According to the updated results from the state election commission, out of 1,515 ZP seats all over the state, 1,311 were declared. From these numbers, BJP emerged a leader with 361 seats, whereas Shiv Sena was jolted back to fourth place with 240 seats. NCP won 307 seats, and Congress managed to get 276 seats.

In the panchayat samiti elections, out of 3,040 seats, 2,494 were declared. Of these, BJP won 711 seats, whereas Sena could only win 483 seats. The NCP won 563 seats and Congress won 502 seats.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the development as an “unprecedented victory by the BJP in the state.” He said, “In the last 25 years, BJP has never received such a huge response from Maharashtra. It is the people’s approval of our policies. People have faith on Modiji and we will work as per his vision.”

Out of 25 zilla parishads, BJP won four ZPs on its own. Furthermore, it emerged on top in almost eight such bodies. Mr Fadnavis has claimed that his party would be able to secure the district chairman position in atleast five to six more ZPs. BJP’s clear victory in Latur, and lead in Jalna and Sangli was the most surprising of all, as Latur was Congress’ fort. BJP won 37 out of 58 seats here. Similarly in Jalna, which was NCP’s bastion, the BJP won 21 seats out of 56. In Western Maharashtra too BJP, surprisingly, secured the first position in Sangli, winning 21 seats out of 60. Sangli has always been known as a Congress–NCP fort.