The spectacular performance of Bharatiya Janata Party in municipal elections in Maharashtra has stunned not just the opposition parties but also Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' competitors within the BJP.
Elections were held for 145 municipal bodies in Maharashtra recently and when the results were out on Monday, the BJP had pocketed 52 seats and its candidates were directly elected as chairpersons in 51 councils . This was the first time that voters directly elected municipal council chairpersons in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena candidates won in 25 councils. Congress men won in 23 councils and NCP bagged 18. BJP also topped in terms of total number of municipal councillors elected.
Elections had been held for 3727 seats in all and the BJP won 893 while Congress won 723 followed by the NCP and Shiv Sena. It is important to note that BJP had won just 390 seats in 2011 elections, so it gained 500 odd seats this time, which no doubt will be a huge morale booster for the saffron party.
This victory is crucial for the BJP as it has come in the wake of demonetisation. The opposition had been hoping that demonetization and the huge Maratha community rallies that Maharashtra has been witnessing since August will work against the BJP. But that hasn't been the case as proved by results of the civic elections.
The credit of this victory goes almost entirely to Fadnavis' meticulous planning. He led BJP campaign from the front from day one. He addressed rallies in 40 municipal councils and BJP has pocketed 33 of them.
He also made sure to take all castes together with him. The social rift that was taking place following Maratha rallies had resulted in counter rallies by OBCs and Dalits. But Fadnavis made sure that he did not side with any particular formation even as he made it clear that BJP had always backed the cause of Maratha reservation.
More importantly Fadnavis kept speaking about social development initiatives launched by his government. He also focused on the need for improved infrastructure across these municipal councils of smaller towns in the state.
What helped BJP further was Fadnavis' clean image. While his ministers have faced allegations of corruption, Fadnavis has been running his own ministries with maximum possible transparency and is always willing to go that extra mile in order to help citizens.
Fadnavis took to twitter to thank people and party activists for making BJP number one party in the state. "This election was held across the state so it was being looked upon as a sort of mini assembly election. I am very pleased that we have got people's mandate. We had to face challenges on many fronts during our last two years in power. But what I noticed was people have started believing that this nation can change. During the campaign they told me that they were facing difficulties due to demonetisation but they also said that they don't mind bearing the trouble for a few days if it is for the good of the country, " said Fadnavis in his interaction with the media.
