Part 4 Seventy fifth Birthday Celebration of Shri Madhu Shetye : Classical Music Performance - Pandit Manohar Shetye

Part 3 Seventy fifth Birthday Celebration of Shri Madhu Shetye : Pandit Naresh Kumta - Flute Recital

Madhu Shetye - Senior Journalist

Part 2 Seventy fifth Birthday Celebration of Shri Madhu Shetye - Senior Journalist

Part 1 Seventy fifth Birthday Celebration of Shri Madhu Shetye - Senior Journalist

May 2017, Civic Elections in Panvel, Bhiwandi- Nizampur and Malegaon Municipal Corporations.

May 2017, Civic  Elections in Panvel, Bhiwandi- Nizampur and Malegaon Municipal Corporations.

Name of the Municipal Corporation	Bharatiya Janata Party	Shiv Sena	Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksh	Indian National Congress	Nationalist Congress Party	Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena	AIMIM	Others
Panvel	51	0	23	2	2	0	-	0
Bhiwandi- Nizampur	19	12	-	47	-	-	-	12 *
Malegaon	9	13	-	28	26 **	1	7	2

Note *  Others in Bhiwandi Nizampur include Konark Vikas Aghadi – 4. RPI – 4, Samajwadi Party -2 and Indpendents – 2 seats respectively.

**  Nationalist Congress Party – won 20 seats  and Janata Dal (S) won 6 seats and together  they  won 26 seats in Malegaon MC.

Bharatiya Janata Party has continued its winning streak in Panvel Municipal Corporation election held on 24^th May 2017. The results for 78 seats of Panvel MC were declared on 26^th May 2017 in which BJP won 51 seats, The Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksha (BSKP) won 23 seats. The BSKP’s alliance partners Congress and NCP Won 2 seats each. Prashant Thakur the local MLA gives credit to Devendra Fadnavis and Narendra Modi for this big victory. The BJP along with RPI (A) made gains in cosmopolitan areas like Kharghar, Kamothe, Kalamboli and new Panvel. BJP benefited where the voters found a disconnect with regional and local  party.

Shiv Sena has turned out to be a big loser as it could not win a single seat and so was MNS.

Bhiwandi- Nizampur Municipal Corporation gave INC a new lease of life. Out of the total 90 seats, The Indian National Congress managed to win 47 seats and retain its power. The demonetisation had badly hit power looms business in Bhiwandi which resulted in defeat of BJP. The BJP won 19 seats, still up from its 2012 performance when it won only 8 seats, Konark Viks Aghadi- the BJP ally won 4 seats taking the tally of saffron alliance to 23 in a Muslim-dominated city. The NCP and Samajwadi Party Party suffered shocking defeat. The NCP could not win a single seat. In 2012, NCP had won 9 seats where as Samajwadi could retain only 2 seats out of 16 which it had won in 2012. The Shiv Sena, which had earlier won 16 seats in 2012 could only retain 12 seats.

In Malegaon Municipal Corporation the INC has emerged biggest winning party by winning 28 seats. NCP has won 20 seats. Together with the help of NCP, Congress can rule Malegaon MC. The BJP which did not win a single seat in 2012 elections managed to win 9 seats. It had fielded maximum number of Muslim candidates ie 57 Muslim candidates but the seats that it won came from the Hindu sections of this Muslim dominated power loom town.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen ( AIMIM) which made its debut won 7 seats. The Shiv Sena won 13 seats thus improving its performance from 11 seats it had won in 2012.

Out of three elections held in May 2017, Congress has managed to win 2 Corporations of Bhiwandi- Nizampur and Malegaon Municipal Corporation which are powerlooms dominated towns. The relatively newly established Panvel Municipal Corporation has chosen BJP as its ruling party.

Civic Elections in Latur, Chandrapur and Parbhani Municipal Corporations - April 2017

Elections  for Latur, Parbhani and Chandrapur Municipal Corporations  was held on April 19, 2017.Chandrapur, Parbhani and Latur recorded 57 per cent, 70 per cent and 60 per cent voting, respectively. Around 62 per cent people had exercised their franchise.

The Greater Latur Municipal Corporation was established in 2011 along with Chandrapur and Parbhani Municipal Corporations as their  population crossed the mark of 3,00,000 according to 2011 census.

The elections to three municipal corporations in Maharashtra are considered as an acid test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress and the NCP. The stakes were high especially for the BJP as it was not in power in any of these municipal corporations. A total of 1,285 candidates are in the fray for the 201 seats in Latur, Parbhani and Chandrapur municipal corporations, whose fate will be decided by 7.93 lakh voters across 1,038 polling stations. 

In 2012 elections were held for the first time in these three Municipal Corporations and the out come was as follows:

In Latur, Indian National Congress won highest number of seats ie.49, Nationalist Congress Party won 13 seats, Shiv Sena won 6 seats and Independents won 2  seats.

In Chandrapur Indian National Congress (INC) won 26 seats, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won only 4 seats, Bharatiya Janata Party won 18, Shiv Sena (SS) won 6 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won 2 , Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) won one seat, Independents won 10 seats while one seat went to other registered party.

Thus the power of Latur and Chandrapur Municipal Corporations vested in the hands of Indian National Congress.

However in Parbhani the power equation tilted in favour of NCP. In Parbhani Municipal Corporation,  Nationalist Congress Party won highest number of seats ie 30 seats where as  Indian National Congress won 23 seats. Bharatiya Janata Party could win only two seats while Shiv Sena won 8 seats. Independent candidates won 2 seats.

The April 2017 elections changed this balance of political power.  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won highest number of seats in Latur and Chandrapur Municipal Corporations.

   21st April 2017   Election Results for Latur, Chandrapur and Parbhani

Name of the Municipal Corporation	Bharatiya Janata Party	Shiv Sena	Indian National Congress	Nationalist Congress Party	Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena	Bahujan Samaj Party	Others
Latur	36	0	33	1	0	-	0
Chandrapur	39	2	14	2	1	6	2
Parbhani	8	6	31	18	1	-	2

It won 36 seats in Latur and 39 in Chandrapur as against INC which won 33 seats in Latur and 14seats in Chandrapur. NCP could win only 1 seat in Latur and 2 in Chandrapur.  Shiv Sena drew a blank in Latur MC where as it could secure only 2 seats in Chandrapur.  BSP secured 6 seats while MNS, Independents and others secured 1 seat each.

However in Parbhani Municipal Corporation,  Indian  National Congress managed to win highest number of seats ie 31 seats and pushed NCP to second position. NCP secured 18 seats. BJP could win only 8 seats and SS 6 seats. Independents won 2 seats.

In the 70-member Latur corporation, it was a test of political clout for BJP leader and state minister Sambhajirao Nilangekar as well as the local Congress MLA Amit Deshmukh. Here 407 candidates were in the fray whose fate was decided by 2.78 lakh voters.

Chandrapur is the home turf of senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, It was a challenge for him to wrest the power from Congress and he emerged successful in his political strategy.

In Chandrapur Municipal Corporation elections 2017, 460 candidates were trying their luck whose fate was decided by 3.02 lakh voters. Polling for the 66 wards of the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation elections was held on April 19. Chandrapur recorded 50 per cent voting.

 In the 65-member Parbhani municipal corporation, it was a test for district guardian minister and senior Sena leader Diwakar Raote. There were 418 candidates in the fray; number of voters is 2.12 lakh

Thus the Bharatiya Janata Party has been successful in its political strategy in winning two of these three Municipal Corpoartions and there by marginalising the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.