Marathwada and Konkan stay with BJP-Shiv Sena

KOLHAPUR

: The BJP had to can its favourite dream of capturing

western Maharashtra

, NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s home ground after the party’s strategy to import leaders from the Congress and the NCP backfired and many sitting MLAs who had defected lost on Thursday. The regions has 70 seats.


BJP leaders said voters’ disapproval of defections had affected the party’s performance in Pune, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur.

Far from a clean sweep that the party was expecting in the eight seats in Pune, the NCP’s first-time candidates won in Hadapsar and Wadgaon Sheri. In neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad, the BJP retained the two seats of Chinchwad and Bhosari. The Sena lost Pimpri to the NCP.

Pune district handed out a bitter defeat after the NCP-Congress combine won nine of the 10 rural constituencies with Daund going to the BJP’s Rahul Kool by 746 votes. The Congress won from Bhor and Purandar.

Some other results were a rude shock for the BJP. Harshvardhan Patil lost from Indapur with sitting NCP MLA Datta Bharne handing him his second successive defeat. Patil had joined the BJP a few days before the election.

The BJP lost in Maval, Shirur and Pandharpur too. Maval has been a bastion since its Jan Sangh days. Yashvant Mane of the NCP won from Mohol.

The party had expected the defections of Vikhe-Patil in Ahmednagar, Mohite-Patil in Solapur and Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara to add to its kitty.

Sources in BJP said Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, a long-time Pawar associate who broke ties with him, could not influence the results in Solapur district and its candidate Ram Satpute lost to NCP’s Uttam Jankar in Malshiras, a reserved constituency, the home town of the Mohite-Patils.

The stakes were high in Ahmednagar district, the pocket borough of housing minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. The family’s clout could not help the BJP-Sena retain the seats.

Vikhe-Patil won from Shirdi but could not stop the saffron alliance’s defeat in Srirampur, Karjat-Jamkhed, Rahuri, Kopargaon and Parner which went to the NCP, and state Congress president Balasaheb Thorat won from Sangamner constituency.

In the Satara Lok Sabha byelection, electors prefered to go with NCP’s Shriniwas Patil against the BJP’s Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Some solace came in the Satara assembly seat where Shivendraraje Bhosale won.

The party’s Jaykumar Gore who switched over from the Congress won the Maan seat but Madan Bhosale, who had joined the BJP a few days ago, lost to NCP’s Makrand Patil. The NCP’s Shashikant Shinde lost in Koregaon to the Shiv Sena’s Mahesh Shinde.

Vaibhav Pichad, who joined the BJP along with his father Madhukarrao, lost in Akole to NCP’s Kiran Lahamate who was with the BJP. The Pichad family was defeated for the first time.

The Congress recorded a spectacular victory in Kolhapur south, Kolhapur north, Hatkanangale and Karvir constituencies in Kolhapur district where it had no representation in the last house. The NCP retained both Kagal and Chandgad while Ichalkaranji was won by independent Prakash Aawade and Shahuwadi was bagged by Vinay Kore of Jansurajya Aaghadi.

In flood-affected Sangli district, the BJP lost two sitting MLAs. The party won Sangli and Miraj but lost Shirala and Jat. The Sena did not open its account while NCP and Congress bagged additional seats.


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