Maharashtra bypolls: BJP aces in Zilla Parishad, Congress in Panchayat Samitis
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Mumbai: The BJP won 22 of the 85 Zilla Parishad seats, while the Congress won 36 of 144 Panchayat Samiti seats on Wednesday after the Maharashtra State Election Commission announced the results of the bypolls held in six districts.
On Tuesday, by-elections were held for 84 vacant seats across 6 Zilla Parishads (ZPs) - Dhule, Nandurbar, Akola, Washim, Nagpur, Palghar and 141 seats in 37 Panchayat Samitis (PSs)under these districts.
While in ZPs, the BJP won the highest of 22, the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena- constituents of the ruling MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government- won 19, 15 and 12 seats, respectively, to a cumulative of 46 seats. The SEC said that independents won four seats, CPI(M) one and others won 12 seats.
In PSs, apart from Congress' win in 36 seats, BJP won 33, Shiv Sena 23 and NCP 18. Independents secured seven seats while the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena won one and other registered parties secured 26.
In one ZP seat and three PS seats, candidates were elected unopposed.
While 367 candidates contested for ZP seats, 555 contested for PS and the polling was recorded at 63 per cent.
The by-elections were conducted after the Supreme Court verdict on quota for OBCs in local bodies.
Maharashtra Congress responded that BJP suffered a "major blow" in the by-elections due to their double standards on Maratha reservation (in jobs and education) and political quota for OBCs (other backward classes). Congress reasoned that it won four more seats than before in ZPs, while the MVA won nine more seats together despite contesting separately. Also, BJP's seat count dropped to 22 from 31, it added.
However, BJP said that the party is growing steadily in the state, continuing to be the "No. 1 party", while Shiv Sena is going down. The party president in the state, Chandrakant Patil, said that the ruling MVA used their full power, but voters gave first preference to his party. Patil added that he is confident that the BJP will win the upcoming bypolls in Deglur of the Nanded district.
