The results for the Jamner Municipal Elections in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon are out. The Bharatiya Janta Party’s nominee for President Sadana Mahajan has defeated the Nationalist Congress Party’s candidate Anjali Pawar by 8,400 votes.
The greatest news for the BJP though is the fact that it has managed to win all the 25 seats in the municipal corporation elections.
Sadana Mahajan is the wife of Girish Mahajan, cabinet minister of the BJP government in Maharashtra. He is the Water Resources and Medical Education Minister in the state and is also a close aide of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. A senior minister of the BJP, Mahajan has helped the CM many a times by resolving the farmer’s protest in Maharashtra and also by meditating during Anna Hazare’s protest in Delhi.
Giving the credit for victory to the people, Mahajan said, “People voted for the development of the Jamner city. They did not succumb to the caste politics and false propaganda of the NCP and the Congress. We will continue to work for the people,”.
The NCP had tried to give a tough fight to the BJP by fielding candidate from the dominating Mali community; however the caste politics did not work in favour of the NCP this time. The voters rejected the NCP candidates and went with the BJP.
BJP’s win has taken everyone by surprise since Jalgaon was supposed to be their stronghold, and more so, because the now estranged leader Eknath Khadse belongs to this very district. Eknath Khadse is believed to be the political rival of Girish Mahajan, even though they both are BJP members. CM Fadnavis has helped Mahajan increase his hold on district as well as state politics.
This is definitely not a new trend for the BJP state party in Maharashtra which had shocked everyone by winning 82 out of 227 seats in the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC elections. BJP also won 8 out of the 10 major municipalities where elections were held. It became the 2nd biggest party in the BMC after the Shiv Sena which had won 84 seats. This was a huge step in the settling in of BJP in the grassroot politics of Maharashtra. Prior to 2017 the BJP had always contested in an alliance with the Shiv Sena in the BMC elections.
The trend was broken by Devendra Fadnavis who went all out in the 2017 elections, and shocked everyone with his victory. His crystal-clear politics and able leadership in the state have changed the image of the BJP in Maharashtra. From being the B-wing of the Shiv Sena, to bringing Shiv Sena back to the drawing board by defeating it on its own turf, Fadnavis has done it all. He has proved the effectiveness of his style and has won the trust of the people of Maharashtra.
The NCP and Congress have almost been wiped out in the Jamner municipal elections. They will be wondering what went wrong this time and questions will be raised within their cadres. The answer is simple, that good governance and fulfilling the promises made to the public have helped BJP sweep the polls.
Edited by : Rohan Sachdeva