Boost to Pawar as NCP shines in local polls

The results of 167 municipal council seats has given NCP President and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar a shot in the arm and taken him an inch closer to fulfilling his ambition of bringing his party to power in Maharashtra on its own.

Out of 3,857 wards which went to polls on Sunday, the NCP has won 832, a gain of nearly 200 over last time. This doesn't include the seats where its workers didn't contest on the party symbol but as part of some local fronts.

"If you add this number, our figure has crossed the 1,000-mark, a gain of almost 25 per cent," party's state unit spokesman Prakash Binsale said.

Though the Congress is still ahead, it lost 163 seats from last time. Its tally stands at 902.

The party which has been hit the most is the Shiv Sena, whose tally has come down almost by half, to 354. The BJP has made some marginal gains. Its seats have increased from 318 to 426.

This clearly shows that the 2009 Assembly polls are likely to be a fight between the Congress and the NCP with BJP and Sena reduced to playing a marginal role, according to a senior NCP minister.

"While all other parties in the state are declining, the NCP has able to expand its base and make significant gains in areas like Marathwada and Konkan which are not its traditional bastions," he said.

A confidant Pawar, who has been cautiously ruling out the possibility of a third front all these years may revive the attempt with the help of friends like TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh, political observers say.

Pawar, while remaining a part of UPA government, had earlier tried to form a group of smaller parties like the TRS, PDP and Lok Janshakti Party.

The polls have also enabled Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil to firm up their grip on state politics. While Deshmukh's main challenger, state revenue minister Narayan Rane has not able to hold on his fortress of Konkan, where the NCP has made significant gains at the cost of the Congress, Sena-BJP's performance in this area is not that bad.

There were murmurs against Patil's style of functioning after the Mumbai bomb blasts and the recent dalit killings.

However, Patil has not only emerged as a star campaigner for his party but also managed to end the Congress' decade-long rule in the Tasgaon municipal council, which is a part of this Tasgaon assembly segment in Sangli district.