Click to play videoNew Delhi: In what came as a major setback for the Congress and the NCP, the first big electoral battle of 2012 has gone in favour of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine that managed to retain power in the prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country's richest civic body.
An honest Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that the defeat in the BMC polls has come as a shock for the Congress.
Speaking to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Chavan said "I didn't expect this result at all. Mumbai has been with Sena for the last 16 years, we tried but did not succeed in 2002 and 2007. This time we tried a different strategy, but we did not succeed."
However, he said that though the Shiv Sena-BJP combine managed to retain power, it was interesting to see Raj Thackeray's MNS take away some seats from Sena. "A very interesting factor here was the MNS breakaway from Sena. They got 28 seats, which is substantial. The point made about identity politics I think needs to be considered seriously. I am not considering it right away. But what really shocked us was that SP got 9 seats. The attempt to consolidate secular votes somewhere was fractured by the Samajwadi Party's performance.
Chavan had earlier suggested that the Congress-NCP combine was banking on Raj Thackeray’s MNS, which they expected would cut into the votes of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.
This was the first civic elections in Mumbai where the Congress was contesting in an alliance with the NCP.
What had prompted Chavan to cobble together an alliance with NCP for the Mumbai civic body poll was the fact that in the last elections, the votes polled by the Congress and NCP, which had then contested the BMC poll separately, if added, would have yielded 132 seats. "Hence, getting a simple majority of 114 seats in the 227-member BMC should not be difficult," Chavan had said.
The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance is also set to retain power in the Thane Municipal Corporation with the help of independents.
Meanwhile, in Pune, the NCP has emerged as the single largest party, but will be able to take the control of the civic body only with the help of the Congress.
The final party position in the 152-seat Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) was: NCP 51, MNS 29, Congress 28, BJP 26, Shiv Sena 15, RPI 2 and Independent 1.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari also saved his face in hometown Nagpur with his party leading over the Congress and the NCP.
The MNS, however, did not manage to shine much in the polls, as it was way behind the BJP-Shiv Sena combine and the Congress-NCP alliance according to the final trends.
As soon as the final leads began to suggest their surge ahead of the opposition parties, an elated Shiv Sena, which has kept the control of the BMC since 1996, began celebrating their win.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray, however, made an attempt to put the blame on the low voter turnout. He said, "The Election Commission should do something about people who do not vote."
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