MUMBAI: Thanking the people of Maharashtra for BJP’s resounding victory in the municipal council and nagar panchayat elections on Sunday, CM Devendra Fadnavis told the media in Nagpur: “I had predicted that 75% of the nagar [council] presidents will be from Mahayuti and the poll results endorse it. Nearly 3,300 corporators are from the Mahayuti. Once again BJP is the number one party with 48% of the nagar presidents.” Pointing out that the Mahayuti alliance has repeated the assembly results, he predicted: “We shall do much better in the municipal corporation elections.”
Describing the poll outcome as a “trailer” for the larger civic battles ahead, deputy CM and Shiv Sena chief Ekanth Shinde said Sunday’s results signalled that BJP would “score a century”, while Shiv Sena would notch up a “half-century with a strong strike rate” in the upcoming polls.Shinde said the mandate proved that Shiv Sena was no longer confined to Thane or Mumbai, but had expanded its footprint across Maharashtra, including smaller towns and regions like Konkan and Raigad. In an apparent swipe at Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde said voters preferred leaders who work onthe ground and “those sitting at home met the same fate”.He added that the total number of seats won by the opposition was even less than the tally secured by Shiv Sena alone in the recent local body elections.Deputy CM and NCP chief Ajit Pawar, who proved his dominance over Baramati and Pune district as the polls delivered a clear win for his faction in the first civic contest sincethe party’s split, said one must see whom the people are standing with.Crediting Fadnavis’s transparent governance and peopleoriented decisions as having played a decisive role in BJP’s resounding win, state party chief Ravindra Chavan said the opposition was visibly missing on the ground during the campaign. He said the quick compensation paid by govt to farmers was acknowledged, as they ensured Mahayuti’s win.
