22 April,2017 08:29 AM IST | | Dharmendra Jore
It also won more seats than the party in Chandrapur, but Congress struck back in Parbhani in the municipal polls
A BJP candidate along with supporters celebrates her victory in the Chandrapur Municipal Elections. Pic/PTI
Voters in Latur, the hometown of former chief minister, late Vilasrao Deshmukh, gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an unprecedented verdict in municipal elections. In the results that were out on Friday, the BJP took its tally to 36 in the House of 70 in which it had no representative in 2012.
Other than Latur, where the Congress came very close to BJP with 33 seats, the ruling party also won Chandrapur with a thumping margin, defeating the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Chandrapur is Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar's hometown.
However, the Congress had some consolation in Parbhani where it beat NCP, and left the BJP and Shiv Sena far behind. Significance of Latur win Latur has been a trusted vote bank of the Congress, thanks to the charisma of late Deshmukh, who passed away five years ago. Deshmukh's elder son Amit had managed to retain his Latur Assembly seat in the 2014 Assembly poll even as the BJP had a good run in rest of the district.
Recently, Deshmukh's youngest son Dheeraj, began his political career with a victory in ZP polls early this year. Deshmukh's other son Riteish is a film actor, who campaigned vigorously for his brothers in both elections. Deshmukh's brother too was an MLC and minister.
Political pundits see this defeat as the downfall of the politically dominating Deshmukh family in Latur where they once ruled like kings. And for this, the member of yet another ex-CM's family, Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, is responsible. Nilangekar's grandfather Shivajirao is in the Congress, while Sambhaji is in the BJP, and is a Cabinet minister in Devendra Fadnavis' team. Earlier, Sambhaji led the BJP to win in ZP polls.
Sambhaji attributed the win to nepotism in the Congress (read the Deshmukh family). "Latur voted for development and has rejected nepotism. We were confident right from the beginning as the city was in crisis because of Congress," said the Labour and Skill Development Minister.
Next target: remainder ex-CMs
The BJP has now set its sights on the strongholds of other ex-CMs who have withstood the party's onslaught since 2014. It has already bagged Solapur (Sushilkumar Shinde), Yavatmal (late Vasant Naik and late Sudhakar Naik) and Sangli (late Vasantdada Patil). Next on its target is Baramati (Sharad Pawar) where it has failed miserably in earlier polls, Nanded (Ashok Chavan and his late father Shankarrao Chavan) and Karad-Satara (Prithviraj Chavan). "We should be able to snatch some of these places by next general, Assembly, and local elections," said a senior BJP leader who is a member of the party's core committee.
