Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday scored a major victory by bagging 41 seats in the 70-seat Latur municipal council, a former Congress stronghold where it had literally no presence in 2012.
Latur had been a Congress bastion for the last 60 years, but the party managed to win only 28 seats on Friday. In fact, the grand old party had reigned supreme in the municipality, zilla parishad, all four civic councils and panchayat samitis when its leader Vilasrao Deshmukh, a former chief minister, was alive. The district had also given Congress another chief minister earlier, Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, who had the top job from June 1985 to March 1986.
This time, however, the BJP has turned the tables on the late Deshmukh’s son, Amit Deshmukh, a former minister of state.
Amit Deshmukh was leading Congress in the council poll whereas Mr Nilangekar’s grandson Sambhaji Nilangekar Patil, a Cabinet minister, shouldered the responsibility for the BJP. Sambhaji Nilangekar Patil had switched to the saffron party a long time ago after falling out with his grandfather.
While the BJP could not win a single seat in Latur in 2012, the Congress had a one-sided mandate with 49 while the Shiv Sena had won six and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 13. This time, the NCP managed to bag a single seat while the Sena got none.
The BJP has been on the rise in the district since the last general elections when it won a Lok Sabha seat there for the first time. Since then, the party had concentrated its efforts on the district.
Its efforts seem to have paid off as it won all four council seats in the elections in 2016. Continuing its victory march, the BJP also won most of the zilla parishad seats and seven panchayat samiti seats in March 2017.
Conceding defeat, Amit Deshmukh said, “We accept the people’s verdict. We will introspect and start working hard again.” Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has expressed his satisfaction with the results.
Marathwada’s new face
The BJP’s Latur triumph has given a new face to Marathwada politics. Sambhaji Nilangekar Patil has proved his mettle by winning all elections that were held in the last six months. Though his grandfather Shivaji Nilangekar Patil, a former CM of state, is a Congressman, Mr Patil had joined the BJP some time ago. After becoming a Cabinet minister, he has been working to make Latur a new fort of the saffron party.
Stunning win
The BJP also won the 66-member Chandrapur municipal body single-handedly. The party won 37 seats whereas the Congress was able to win only 13. Chandrapur is the hometown of two high-profile BJP leaders: finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and Union minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir. The Congress and NCP, however, managed to retain the Parbhani.
