MUMBAI: The voters of the Nagpur Zilla Parishad delivered a shocking blow to the BJP Wednesday, with the party managing just 15 of the 58 seats.
The Congress was the biggest beneficiary with 30 seats while ally the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) managed 12. The Shiv Sena, which contested independently, won the only other seat.
Elections to the local body were held Tuesday, three years after the Zilla Parishad was dissolved in 2017. When the local body was dissolved, the BJP had 22 seats, the Congress 19, Shiv Sena 8, and the NCP 7 seats.
The result is a massive setback for the BJP as Nagpur is considered one of its strongholds — former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari belong to the city. Nagpur also houses the headquarters of the RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP.
This is also the first major election Nagpur has seen since the BJP lost power in the state. The party was routed in Dhapewada, Gadkari’s ancestral village.
‘Personality-driven campaign behind loss’
The Zilla Parishad elections are considered very important by political parties as it helps them spread their reach in rural and semi-urban areas. For political heavyweights in every party, the Zilla Parishad is the main route through which they control the villages and the local gram panchayats.
Senior BJP leaders blamed the personality-driven campaign undertaken by Fadnavis as the primary reason for the loss in these polls.
“The party changed its campaign leaders at the last moment. The local leaders are the face of the party in the rural and semi-urban areas,” a senior BJP leader from Maharashtra said. “They have a popular connect with the people. How can Devendra Fadnavis drop these leaders from the campaign platform?”
The leader, who was denied a ticket by Fadnavis in the 2019 assembly elections, felt that the one-man campaign failed to connect with voters.
“After we lost power in Maharashtra, Fadnavis has stopped consulting the local leaders. These leaders understand the pulse of rural Maharashtra,” said the leader.
Sources said it was only Fadnavis who consulted and implemented plans while Gadkari was kept out of strategising for these elections. With Gadkari unavailable to fire-fight party factionalism, it led to losses in crucial seats, said the source.
“Fadnavis was para-dropping for meetings, when he should have been in Nagpur coordinating the campaign with others,” the source added.
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Denial of ticket may have led to loss
The prime factor for the loss appears to be the denial of an MLA ticket to former minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, said those in the know of events. Considered to be the moneybags candidate by all who know him, Bawankule was the unifying factor between the warring Gadkari and Fadnavis factions.
Caste also seemed to have played a dominant role. With Bawankule, who belongs to the Teli community, being cast aside by Fadnavis, the community moved away from the BJP. The Telis have been traditional voters of the BJP.
Speaking to ThePrint, the editor (Vidharbha) of ABP News, Sarita Kaushik, said, “This is a big blow to the BJP and shows that the change at the state level has permeated to the Zilla Parishad level.”
“All the ministers of the Congress and the NCP who are from this region worked very hard for the victory. The BJP has become too person-centric and it has not gone down well with the rural voters.”
According to Shailesh Pande, executive editor Sakal (Vidharbha edition), the BJP is losing ground in Nagpur.
“The people in the rural areas want change and their anger has forced a change. The rural mass appeal of the Congress is still there,” Pande said. “Now that the BJP is not in power it will be difficult to penetrate the rural base of the Congress.”
Like Kaushik, Pande too felt that a motivated Congress and NCP have worked hard in a unison to win the crucial seats.
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Again English wrong in the Headline. Send the editor for brushing up his rusty English. YOU NEED A COMM BETWEEN dealt and BJP..
The BJP won 106 seats.
https://www.news18.com/news/politics/in-maharashtra-bjp-wins-most-seats-amid-poor-show-at-nagpur-zilla-parishad-polls-congress-2nd-2451169.html
See, this is how the left-CONgress ecosystem works.
Even though the BJP increased its seat count in these ZP polls from 53 to 103. Although they did lose Nagpur, BUT GAINED Dhule.
Why does the article not mention that NCP lost its bastion too in the ZP polls? Or does it not suit the agenda to build a “narrative”?
Well said Ananta. They must be reminded readers aren’t fools.
There is a disenchantment of BJP in Nagpur. This is natural. Any party philosophy cannot hold the imagination of the people for long. It has bound to go down in a long run. This is natural. People are fed up with the unnatural wrong direction of the fascist party. They call progressive and humanist persons “urban naxals” and those who killed the father of the nation as patriots. This topsy turvy logic has demoralised the masses. Democracy will definitely catch up.
There appears to be a systematic plan against Gadkari and Gadhavi. Somebody in the party must have felt threatened by their growing stature within BJP. Efforts have been made to separate these two by creating misunderstanding between them. The loss in Nagpur will now be projected as inability of both of them to carry people with them.
The tide is turning!
Minister Nitin Gadkari was never a mass leader. I think 2014 was the first time he fought a conventional election. Mr Fadnavis has systematically undercut party colleagues who had a political base. Shat pratishat BJP is not feasible if the three coalition partners stick together.
Nitin Gadkari was a very popular minister in Sena-BJP government before he entered national scenario in 2014. He holds image of an honest, clean political leader 8n Maharashtra.