How BJP scripted its victory in Maharashtra

In a show of strength, Bharatiya Janata Party bulldozed the opposition – the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and estranged ally Shiv Sena -- to wrest power in the state.

>> MUMBAI

BJP won 15 and Shiv Sena 14 seats. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Samajwadi party won one seat each, while Raj Thackeray-led MNS drew a blank in the megapolis.

Congress, which had bagged 17 of the total 36 Assembly constituencies in Mumbai in 2009, fared miserably this time, managing to retain only 5 seats.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde (BJP) won from Borivali with a massive margin of over 70,000 votes. He polled 1,02,778 votes, defeating his nearest rival Uttam Agarwal of Shiv Sena got 29,011 votes.

In Mumbadevi, Congress candidate Amin Patel retained his seat polling 39,188 votes against BJP's Atul Shah who got 30,675 votes.

In the suburbs, Aslam Sheikh of Congress retained Malad-West, polling 56,574 votes against BJP's Ram Barot who polled 54,574.

>> PUNE

In Pune, the party wrested five new seats out of eight while retaining three where all its sitting MLAs won with convincing margins, contrary to expectations of a close fight in view of five-cornered electoral fights following breaking of both the alliances in the state.

Shiv Sena failed to retain two seats it had won in 2009 -- the prestigious Kothrud constituency and Hadapsar -- where its renominated candidates and sitting MLAs Chandrakant Mokate and Mahadeo Babar lost to their BJP rivals Medha Kulkarni and Yogesh Tilekar, respectively.

Congress too suffered a setback in its bastion of Pune Cantonment from where its candidate and sitting MLA Ramesh Bagve, a former minister, lost to his BJP rival Dilip Kamble. Another jolt to the party was in Shivajinagar seat where its high profile sitting MLA Vinayak Nimhan, considered a close associate of Narayan Rane, was defeated by BJP’s Vijay Kale by over 22,000 votes.

In Parvati constituency, Madhur Misal of BJP crushed Sachin Tawre of the Sena by a massive margin of about 70,000 votes to retain the seat, while the party’s another sitting MLA Bhimrao Tapkir humbled his Sena rival Shyamrao Deshpande in Khadakwasla constituency.

>> NASHIK

In Nashik too, the BJP wrested all three seats from MNS in Nashik city. Nashik-Central’s sitting MNS legislator Vasant Gite was defeated by BJP’s Devyani Pharande by a margin of 28,272 votes.           

In Nashik-West, BJP’s state unit general secretary Seema Mahesh Hiray won the seat by polling 67,489 votes.

Former Mayor Balasaheb Sanap of BJP, won the Nashik-East seat by defeating MNS legislator Ramesh Dhongade.

In Devlali constituency, reserved for scheduled cast, former state social welfare minister Babanrao Gholap’s son Yogesh Baban Gholap of Shiv Sena won by polling 49,751 votes.

Out of the total 15 seats in Nashik, BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP have won 4 seats each, Congress-2 and Communist Party of India-Marxist won 1.

>> VIDARBHA

The Vidarbha region overwhelmingly came out in support of BJP in the assembly polls and rejected Congress in the hustings. Of the 62 seats in the region, BJP has won or was leading in 42, while Congress has been reduced to just about a dozen seats.

Devendra Fadnavis (Nagpur-South West), Sudhir Mungattiwar (Ballarpur) and Chainsukh Sancheti (Malkapur) of the BJP won in the cotton belt seat.