Congress bites dust in Maharashtra civic polls

The municipal election results in the state have given the Congress a major jolt in the politically important cities of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.

In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine was heading towards victory in 106 wards, eight short of crossing the magic figure of 114. Congress had won or was leading in 53 seats, NCP in 14 and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) in 7, while others on 21 seats. Counting is still on on some seats and the final tally may change by one or two seats for all the political parties.

The results have saved the political career of two persons from diametrically opposite camps. They have boosted the sagging political graph of Sena's working president Uddhav Thackeray, while the Congress failure to post impressive numbers has put the main contender for the chief minister's post, Narayan Rane, on the backfoot, thus helping Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh strengthen his grip on the post.

The Samajwadi Party's performance has been the biggest surprise of this election with the party bagging 20 seats. Since the Sena-BJP combine's win in the 2002 municipal elections, Sena had seen a series of defeats under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray.

Despite favourable conditions, the Sena-BJP combine failed to wrest power from Congress-NCP in the 2004 Assembly elections. Then the Sena saw the exit of Rane and Uddhav's younger cousin

Raj from the party. Against this backdrop, the chances of the Sena-BJP combine coming to power in the BMC for a third term were almost ruled out.

However, seat-sharing talks between Congress and NCP broke down on the eve of this BMC elections and the saffron combine was the main beneficiary of this. The results indicate Sena chief Bal Thackeray's charisma over Marathi voters in the metropolis still works.

It is also clear the Congress grip over the Muslim and North Indian votes in the city has loosened as the Samajwadi Party has managed to increase its tally from 4 to 20.