News Analysis India

Tag: Maharashtra Local Body Polls

  • Rahul Gandhi gives nod to Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole to fight local body elections solo

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: After meeting with Congress leaders in Delhi, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said that the Congress will fight the upcoming local body and other elections on its own and they will not make an alliance with any political front.

    Patole, who is a close confidante of Rahul Gandhi, said that Rahul has given the green signal to him to contest the local body and other elections on its own. The senior party leader said that this decision of contesting solo will not have any impact on the incumbent Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance as they will continue to share the power and work to expand the base of the party.

    “We had a very good meeting with our leader Rahul Gandhi. We discussed various issues to strengthen the party at every nook and corner and so we decided that though the Congress party will remain with Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, it contest the upcoming elections on its own only,” Patole said.

    Patole’s statement is very significant because he was the first to declare and consistently make statements of Congress contesting solo the future elections. However, his own party leaders rubbished his claim till Rahul Gandhi himself gave the green signal for solo elections.

    Earlier, NCP chief Sharad Pawar was angry with Patole’s claim of Congress fighting the local body elections solo. When the AICC’s Maharashtra in-charge Hanumanthagowda K Patil and state ministers Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan went to meet Pawar at his residence in Mumbai, Pawar asked these leaders whether the Congress high command has givenPatole the rights to to take such decisions.

    Pawar also said that if this is the stand of the Congress high command, then he will also prepare for his party. Patole said that the party got ditched in 2014 when NCP broke the alliance at the eleventh hour and hence, to avoid a similiar mistake, he has been preparing his party for the solo contest from today only.

  • Shiv Sena leads pack as Aghadi wins local body polls

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi emerged as the winner in the local body polls by bagging 6,799 grama panchayats out of the 11,795 whose results were declared on Monday.

    The race is for 14,234 gram panchayats, 2,000 of which have elected their heads unopposed. Shiv Sena leads the race with 2,576 seats, closely followed by BJP with 1,563. The other constituents of the MVA – NCP (2,400) and Congress (1,823) – accounted for 4,223 seats. Raj Thackeray-led MNS could muster only 36 seats, while independent candidates bagged 2,337 seats. 

    Many BJP stalwarts, including former BJP minister Ram Shinde, Maharashtra BJP state president Chandrakant Patil, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Udayan Raje Bhosale, saw their villages fall into the rival camp, prompting a jibe from Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh that the saffron party would do well to perform as a good opposition. Deshmukh said the trend was in Aghadi’s favour.

    “People voted for our government. They are happy with our policies. We will continue under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi,” Deshmukh said.

    Referring to the recent graduate and teacher legislative council elections, Deshmukh said that the Aghadi had won five out of the total six seats. “The trend in Maharashtra shows that the people here have rejected the BJP. Now, BJP should not dream of coming back to power,” Deshmukh added.

    Maharashtra Congress president Balasaheb Thorat hailed the victory of the Aghadi and pointed out that Congress, too, had performed well. “We are hopeful winning more seats as people have reposed their trust in us. BJP needs to introspect. It should stop raising non-issues like Arnab Goswami and espouse the issues of farmers,” Thorat said.

    However, former chief minister and BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis exuded confidence that his party would emerge as the single largest party after the counting. Referring to BJP’s landslide victory in the Konkan region, he said, “Sena should introspect and work for the people. BJP will emerge the largest party.” 

    Single largest party

    Referring to the BJP’s landslide victory in the Konkan region, BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis exuded confidence that his party would emerge as the single largest party