Mumbai, Oct 13 (PTI) The Congress has won 73 of the 81seats in the civic polls in Nanded, the home turf of stateparty chief Ashok Chavan, as per the final results declaredearly today.
Denting the BJP's bid to wrest power, the Congress wassuccessful in limiting the saffron party's tally to six in theelections to the Nanded-Waghala Municipal Corporation (NWMC).
The results of four seats were kept pending yesterdaydue to technical reasons and were declared today, an officialof the State Election Commission said.
Chavan yesterday attributed the party's win tonon-tampering of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) andclaimed that the BJP's "return journey" has started.
As per the final tally of the total 81 seats, theCongress won 73, followed by the BJP which bagged six seats.
The Shiv Sena just about managed to open its account with oneseat. An independent candidate also won a seat.
"The results have proven that the return journey ofthe BJP has started from Maharashtra. Our ground work inNanded ensured that there was no tampering of EVMs, which ledto our victory," Chavan yesterday told reporters here aftertaking part in the victory celebrations outside the MumbaiCongress office.
"There is severe discontent among the people due tohigh fuel prices, farmers' suicides and troubles caused tocultivators due to faulty loan waiver system. People haveunderstood the hollow claims made by the chief minister(Devendra Fadnavis)," Chavan said.
Maharashtra's labour minister Sambhaji PatilNilangekar, who was in-charge of the BJP's poll machinery inNanded, yesterday claimed that the party's vote share rosefrom 3 per cent in 2012 to 19 per cent this time around.
However, BJP's new ally and Maharashtra SwabhimanPaksha (MSP) leader Narayan Rane advised the BJP leadership todo an introspection on why it fared so bad despite the chiefminister holding many election rallies in the run-up to theNanded civic polls.
He, however, dismissed the argument that the Nandedcivic poll results would have an impact on the 2019 Lok Sabhaand Assembly elections.
The Nanded civic body has been ruled by the Congress,since it came into existence two decades ago.
The party-wise strength in NWMC prior to this electionwas: Congress-41, Shiv Sena-14, AIMIM-11, NCP -10,independents-three and BJP-two.
Notably, the BJP had won 12 of the 16 civic bodies inMaharashtra, for which polls were held this year, expandingits footprint in the state's urban pockets. It had madeinroads into the traditional Congress strongholds and alsothose of partner Shiv Sena. PTI VTGK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.