MUMBAI: With BJP managing to win two municipal corporations one in the Congress-NCP bastion of Western Maharashtra and other against Shiv Sena in the North Maharashtra speculations that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to be replaced are expected to die.
Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut had last week said there were talks in the BJP about replacing Fadnavis, while independent legislator Ravi Rana from Amravati had said that six independent MLAs, including him, would withdraw support from the government if the chief minister was replaced.
These speculations regarding replacing Fadnavis had gained momentum on the backdrop of raging Maratha quota stir in the state.
However, with the party winning both the prominent local bodies the speculations are likely to subside now. BJP won 78-member Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad Municipal Corporation with a comfortable majority of 41 seats.
The Congress won 20 seats and the NCP 15 while the Shiv Sena that contested independently couldn't open an account. The NCP lost 4 seats compared to last time while the Congress lost 21 seats in this prominent municipal corporation in the sugar belt which has traditionally been their bastion.
In the 75-member Jalgaon Municipal Corporation too, the BJP rose from 15 to 57 and the Shiv Sena from 0 to 15 while the NCP that had 11 members in the outgoing house couldn't open its account.
The AIMIM got 3 in the local body. Here too breakaway NCP leader Suresh Jain and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who had to resign from the state cabinet two years back, were the two prominent factors that appear to have been neutralized in this election.
"The results have proved that the people have expressed their faith in the BJP yet again," Fadnavis said while reacting to media after the results.
"This is a mandate in favour of the politics of trust and development initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and people have voted in its favour like they have done in previous elections in the state," he added.
With today's two victories, the BJP has won 16 out of 27 municipal corporations that have gone to vote over past four years while it is sharing power with the Shiv Sena in three other Municipal corporations. The number of BJP corporators in all these corporations has gone up by almost five-fold from 208 to 1036.
Referring to Maratha quota stir, Fadnavis said that several of the pending issues in the state have been pending for over 40-45 years and with today's results it is proved yet again that the people have trusted in BJP to resolve all these issues.