BJP makes inroads into Marathwada, party bags 15 of 46 in closely fought battle

AURANGABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had to be content with just two seats in the 2009 assembly polls, jolted the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena this time by walking away with 15 of the 46 seats in Marathwada.
Marathwada was considered a Congress-Sena bastion, with the NCP having a strong presence in pockets like Beed and Osmanabad.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had fought the elections in almost all the seats here, was reduced to nought along with other smaller parties.The MNS had won one seat in Kannad in 2009.
The Aurangabad district also witnessed close fights in its nine assembly constituencies. The BJP and the Sena won three seats each, while the Congress and NCP took one each. Imtiaz Jaleel of the MIM walked away with the Aurangabad Central seat.
The BJP had roped in none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take on the three major players during campaigning. Modi struck a chord with the people of Marathwada from the first rally in Beed, home turf of the late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde. He later held rallies at Aurangabad, Hingoli, Tuljapur (Osmanabad) and Loha (Nanded).
The BJP swept the polls in Beed, with its candidate, Preetam Munde-Khade, winning by a whopping margin of 6.92 lakh votes. She defeated Ashok Patil of the Congress. Munde’s eldest daughter, Pankaja, retained the Parli seat which she had won in 2009.
“I give credit to my father who was connected to people at the grassroots,’’ Preetam said.
In his rallies, Modi refrained from referring to the Shiv Sena but attacked the Congress and the NCP. He listed the central government’s achievements and the failures of the Congress in the state over the past decade. He had sought votes to keep Maharashtra ahead in terms of development and growth.
The Sena, which used to hold sway over Marathwada, managed to get 11 seats this time. In 2009, it had won seven seats. “The Sena was banking on support from Marathwada, where it had won 14 out of 46 seats in 2004. It was expecting to double its 2004 tally in the region, but it was the BJP that walked away with the highest number of seats,’’ a political observer said.
In Beed, the BJP won five seats and the NCP had to be content with just one. In Osmanabad, where the BJP drew a blank, the NCP won two seats, while the Congress and the Sena bagged a seat each.
In Nanded, the Congress could retain three seats, while the Sena regained its lost sheen by winning four seats, though by a narrow margin. The NCP, which had two seats in 2009, got just one seat this time. The BJP too had to be content with one seat, with two of its nominees losing by very narrow margins.
The BJP won three seats in Jalna, while the NCP and Sena got one each. Former minister for technical education Rajesh Tope won the seat for the NCP while Arjun Khotkar, also a former minister of state, won the seat for the Sena by a slender margin of 296 votes. He defeated Kailash Gorantyal of the Congress.
In Latur, Amit Deshmukh led the Congress to win three out of six seats, while the BJP could muster victory in two seats. An independent candidate took the Ahmedpur seat.
Parbhani was a face-saver for the NCP as it managed to wrest the Jintur seat from the Congress and defeated an independent in Gangakhed. The Sena and an independent candidate won a seat each in Parbhani.
Hingoli district saw the Congress, the BJP and the Shiv Sena winning one seat each.