Election 2017 BJP gains from losses suffered by parties

BJP gains from losses suffered by parties

Pune =No Drastic Dip For NCP; Cong And MNS Worst Hit Parties

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which got a two-thirds majority in the Pune Municipal Corporation by winning 98 seats, has secured a vote share of 36.88% -an impressive improvement over the 12.48% votes it polled in the 2012 civic polls.On Tuesday, the city recording a voter turnout of 55.5%, with about 14 lakh voters casting their votes.
The massive gain has been attributed to the huge losses suffered by the Congress and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Congress polled just 8.42% votes while MNS received only 6.24%, a massive fall of 13% and 14% respectively.
In this election, the BJP also has the distinction of contesting from the highest number of seats (155) as it emerged the single biggest party. This is also the first victory for BJP since the PMC was established way back in 1950.
According to the data released by the PMC, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) stood second in vote share, followed by Congress, Shiv Sena and MNS. While the party managed to win just 38 seats, it mostly retained its vote share by recording 22.39%, compared to the 25.12% in 2012.
“We might have lost the elections but we have managed to retain our vote share from the last elections,“ said NCP leader Vandana Chavan, who resigned as the city unit chief. “It is not that our party members have not per formed; the other parties such as Congress and MNS have fared badly. Their votes have gone to BJP,“ she added.
However, MP Anil Shirole refuted that theory, claiming that there was a definite pro-BJP sentiment among the voters. “The city's development was our agenda, and people voted for all the projects we announced,“ Shirole said.
MNS cadre laid the blame squarely at the feet of their party chief, Raj Thackeray.“Our party president hardly paid any attention to our campaign and left the candidates to their own fate. Even during the last five years, Raj Thackeray did not show much interest in increasing the party's base,“ said an MNS leader, requesting anonymity.
The Congress party managed to win a dismal nine seats, 19 seats in the deficit from the 28 they had won in 2012. The party has gone into a huddle to assess the situa tion. City Congress leader Vishwajit Kadam has proposed to go back to the basics, and reach out to the party workers at the grass roots' level to understand where they went wrong. “The situation is serious and we have to take all steps to rebuild the party. We are also talking to all our candidates who contested the elections. Congress is a grand old party and we will come out of the crisis,“ said Kadam.
On the other hand, the Shiv Sena managed to improve its tally in the elections by gaining 4% in vote share, but that barely benefited the party, which finished fourth in the final tally.
The party's city unit president Vinayak Nimhan admitted the party needs to put in more effort to regain lost ground. “We are working hard to ensure that we emerge strong. Our party has a wide network, across the city, and we are going to streng then the same for the assembly elections in 2019,“ he said.
Political Research and Analysis Bureau head Chandrakant Bhujbal said that BJPs slogan of “Parliament to Corporation“ helped connect with voters.“The anti-incumbency wave and the hope for something better, and a slew of projects such as the ring road, DP, slum rehabilitation, airport and metro were some of the factors on which the voters identified with the BJP,“ said Bhujbal.
The BJP's campaign with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as its face also seems to have resonated with the voters, he added.
While these elections did not leave much scope for the independent candidates, the total votes polled by independent candidates were about 5 lakh, which comprised about 8.8% of the vote share in these elections.