Maharashtra Assembly polls-2014: It’s clean sweep for BJP in Vidarbha

 

* BJP wins 44 out of total 62 seats establishing its clear dominance in the region, Congress biggest loser

By Kartik Lokhande 
It was a ‘Super Sunday’ for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in true sense in Maharashtra as well as Vidarbha region. Continuing with its spectacular performance in Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year, BJP bagged as many as 44 out of total 62 seats of Legislative Assembly. Congress was reduced to be the biggest loser, followed by Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) registering a decline in their tallies in Vidarbha.
In a never-before success, BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha in the elections held earlier this year. Then, BJP and Shiv Sena alliance had secured a lead in 58 out of total 62 Assembly segments. Against this backdrop, it was anticipated that BJP-Sena alliance would outperform others in Assembly elections. However, BJP-Sena parted ways and so did Congress-NCP. As a result, these four parties contested Assembly elections independently. This stirred up the political atmosphere in entire State as well as region. These parties dropped some of their sitting MLAs, who then switched over to other parties. All these developments had made the elections interesting. Still, it was anticipated that BJP would emerge as the single largest party in Vidarbha.
Right from the first couple of rounds of counting of votes on Sunday, BJP started emerging as the single largest party in State as well as Vidarbha. In Vidarbha, at the end of counting, BJP finished with an impressive tally of 44 seats. It emerged as the only party with gains, compared to its performance in previous Assembly elections held in 2009. BJP increased its its tally from 19 in Assembly elections held in 2009 to 44 in 2014. BJP bagged all seats in Bhandara and Gadchiroli district, most of the seats in Gondia and Washim districts, and 11 out of total 12 seats in Nagpur district. Interestingly, in Nagpur district, BJP had contested on 11 seats only as its candidate Sonba Musale’s nomination form got rejected in Saoner constituency. Registering its most splendid victory ever, BJP won all 11 seats it contested in Nagpur district.
Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena all proved to be losers as they could not manage to even retain the number of seats they had won in 2009. Congress emerged as the biggest loser, as it lost 14 seats compared to 2009. Shiv Sena lost four seats and NCP lost three. In 2009, other parties and Independents had won seven seats. This time, other parties and Independents managed to win only three seats.
Assembly elections this time also saw big upsets, as 22 incumbent MLAs got defeated mostly by debutants. Some of the big names include Ashish Jaiswal (Shiv Sena) in Ramtek, Dinanath Padole (Congress rebel who contested as NCP candidate) in South Nagpur; Suresh Deshmukh in Wardha, Dadarao Keche (BJP) in Arvi, Ashok Shinde (Shiv Sena) in Hinganghat, Anandrao Gedam (Congress) in Armori, Vijayraj Shinde (Shiv Sena) in Buldana, Dilip Sananda (Congress) in Khamgaon, Raosaheb Shekhawat (Congress) in Amravati, Abhijeet Adsul (Shiv Sena) in Daryapur, Haridas Bhade (BRP-BMS) in Akola-East, and Sanjay Gawande (Shiv Sena) in Akot.
In Amravati, Dr Sunil Deshmukh avenged his defeat at the hands of Raosaheb Shekhawat. In 2009, Congress preferred Shekhawat over the then Congress MLA Dr Sunil Deshmukh from Amravati constituency. Dr Deshmukh rebelled but got defeated. Before Assembly elections this time, Dr Deshmukh joined BJP and defeated Shekhawat from the same constituency by a big margin of 35,072 votes.
For incumbent ministers of erstwhile Congress-NCP Government, this election proved to be the most shocking one. Barring Manohar Naik (NCP) and Ranjit Kamble (Congress), no other minister could retain his seat in Vidarbha. Anil Deshmukh (NCP), Dr Nitin Raut (Congress), Sanjay Deotale (Congress rebel who contested as BJP candidate), Shivajirao Moghe (Congress) lost the election by a big margin. Congress leader Vasant Purke, who was Deputy Speaker of Assembly during Congress-NCP regime, also lost by a huge margin of 38,750 votes to BJP’s Ashok Uike from Ralegaon constituency in Yavatmal district.

District-wise tally in Vidarbha  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

District                Assembly         BJP     Shiv     Cong    NCP     Others

                        constituencies                 Sena

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nagpur                        12              11         --          01          --             --

Wardha                       04              02         --          02          --             --

Bhandara                   03              03          --          --           --             --

Gondia                       04              03          --          01          --             --

Chandrapur               06              04         01         01           --             --

Gadchiroli                 03              03          --          --             --            --

Amravati                  08              04           --         02            --            02

Akola                       05              04           --          --             --            01

Buldhana                 07              03          02         02            --            --

Washim                   03              02           --          01            --            --

Yavatmal                 07              05          01          --            01           --

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total                      62               44          04          10            01          03

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Party-wise tally in Vid in 2009 and 2014

-------------------------------------------------------------

Party               Seats won              Difference

                       2009     2014               (+/-)

-------------------------------------------------------------

BJP                19          44                  +25

Cong              24          10                   -14

Shiv Sena      08          04                   -04

NCP              04          01                   -03

Others          07          03                   -04

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(Published in The Hitavada CityLine and Vidarbha Line on October 20, 2014)

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