27 May,2017 08:17 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
Ruling party wins first-ever Panvel corporation polls, thanks to poached top former PWP leaders, but fares poorly in Muslim majority Bhiwandi-Nizampur and Malegaon
BJP's Kamini Patil and Darshana celebrate their victory in Bhiwandi civic polls. PIC/PTI
The BJP won the newly created Panvel Municipal Corporation, but lost Bhiwandi and Malegaon to the Congress. The total seats won - BJP (79) and Congress (77) - in the three corporations also established the Congress's dominance in towns with a Muslim-majority population.
Celebrating its victory, the Congress said the results were an indication of the downfall of BJP's regimes at the Centre and the state.
On the other hand, the BJP attributed its marginally bigger-than-Congress gain to its governance; people in the know of the matter said BJP's masterstroke of getting the Thakur family (MLA Prashant and his ex-MP father) on its side ahead of the 2014 Assembly elections played a major role in its huge win.
Courtesy the Thakurs
Prashant was a Congress MLA before defecting to the BJP. He was once touted as a member of the Rahul Gandhi brigade. His father was a member of the Peasants and Workers Party, which ruled Raigad district for decades after Independence. The two had joined the Congress in 2009 and won the Assembly elections.
"It was primarily a fight between the PWP and the Thakur family. The BJP was smart enough to lure the family in 2009, and then, CM Devendra Fadnavis went on to expand the Panvel council to corporation. The BJP pressed its well-oiled machinery to assist the Thakurs to win 51 out of the 78 seats," said a senior BJP leader, adding that the Shiv Sena did not matter for voters here.
Poor shows
In Bhiwandi-Nizampur, the BJP (19) and the Sena (12) could not even reach 20 individually, whereas the Congress won a handsome 47 out of the 90 seats. In Malegaon, the Congress (28) and the NCP (20) are expected to make a government. The BJP, despite fielding several Muslim candidates, returned with just nine seats. Muslim voters didn't pay much attention to the AIMIM in Malegaon, where the party won six seats; in Bhiwandi, it didn't even open its account.
51 Number of seats BJP bagged in Panvel civic polls
47 Number of seats Congress bagged in Bhiwandi civic polls
