Nashik: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made a clean sweep at the Trimbakeshwar municipal council elections. Their saffron ally in the state, Shiv Sena too found a strong footing in the Igatpuri municipal council polls. The results were declared on Monday afternoon, with the BJP winning 14 of the 17 seats in a town that’s home to the Trimbakeshwar Temple, and where the Simhasth Kumbh Mela is held every 12 years.
BJP’s win is historic, as it has risen to a tally of 14 seats from a lone seat in the last polls. Purushottam Lohegaonkar from the BJP won the direct election to be the president of the Trimbakeshwar Municipal Council (TMC). “It was a clean sweep. This was the first time that the BJP has managed to get such a thumping mandate,” stated Adv Srikant Gaidhani, trustee, Trimbakeshwar Temple. Mr Lohegaonkar polled 3,053 votes and won by 1,306 votes over his Congress rival Sunil Adsare, who polled 1,747.
Senior BJP activist Tejas Dherage said that the victory was due to the charisma of PM Narendra Modi and the transparency CM Devendra Fadnavis’ government.
In Igatpuri, the Shiv Sena won 13 of the 18 seats while the BJP took 4 seats and one independent was elected to Igatpuri Municipal Corporation (IMC). Sainik Sanjay Indulkar was directly elected as the president of IMC.
The Congress lost all seats in Trimbakeshwar and Igatpuri while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) managed to win the by-election in Satana Municipal Council election in Nashik district.
