Nagpur: The elections to Nagpur Zilla Parishad witnessed the lady luck smiling on Congress-NCP alliance as the old friends stormed to power after decimating the ruling BJP. BJP and Shiv Sena had to pay a heavy price for parting ways and fighting the polls on their own.
Results of 58 seats of Nagpur Zilla Parishad for which polling was held on Tuesday, January 7, were declared on Wednesday. In the sterling performance, Congress won 31 seats while NCP was victorious in 10 seats. BJP, which was ruling the Zilla Parishad since past many years, won only 14 seats. Two seats were bagged by the Independents. Shiv Sena which fought the polls on its own had to bite dust as the party could win just one seat.
Polling for 58 seats of Zilla Parishads (ZP) and 116 seats of 13 Panchayat Samitis (PS) in Nagpur district was held on Tuesday with former alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena contesting separately for this battle of might. With around 67 per cent voting, 14,19,708 voters had sealed the fate of 270 candidates of ZP and 497 of PS in this election. The counting of votes was held on Wednesday, January 8.
The Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls also left the bigwig BJP leaders red-faced. Congress candidate Mahendra Dongre won the Dhapewada seat in Panchayat Samiti election. Dhapewada is native place of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Similarly, former Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule also faced embarassment as Congress candidate Nana Kambhale emerged victorious from Koradi Zilla Parishad Circle. Koradi is hometown of Bawankule.
Two sons of NCP leaders – State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and Ramesh Bang – tasted sweet success in the polls. Salil Deshmukh, son of Anil Deshmukh, has won from Metpanjara in the Panchayat Samiti polls in Katol Tehsil. Salil won by margin of 3500 votes. Dinesh Bang, son of senior NCP leader Ramesh Bang, won Hingna PS seat.
In the past few years, Nagpur Zilla Parishad was ruled by BJP and its alliance partners including Shiv Sena. After Assembly elections, BJP and Shiv Sena parted ways. Later, Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress came together and formed Maha Vikas Aghadi. The Aghadi formed government in the State but fought the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections separately. While the alliance of two old friends Congress-NCP remained in tact, Shiv Sena tried its luck on its own strength but had to bite dust.
