NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

NCP establishes early lead in local body polls

The Nationalist Congress Party, a partner in the ruling Democratic Front government in Maharashtra, has established an early lead in the legislative council by-elections, winning three of four local bodies seats declared.

Counting of votes for the by-elections, which took place on Saturday, began this morning in Amravati, Parbhani, Nashik, Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli local bodies, Konkan graduates, Mumbai graduates, Nashik teachers and Mumbai teachers constituencies.

The NCP wrested the Nashik local bodies seat, which was earlier held by Independent Shantaram Aher. The NCP and Congress were locked in a ''friendly contest'' in this constituency. The NCP retained the Parbhani and Chandrapur-Wardha-Gadchiroli local bodies seats. Ramdas Tadas has been re-elected from Chandrapur-Wardha-Gadchiroli, while Ramprasad Bordikar won in Parbhani.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Amravati local bodies seat, earlier held by Vasudha Deshmukh of the Congress, Minister of State for Finance in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. She was elected to the legislative assembly in the 1999 elections and since then the Amravati local bodies seat was vacant.

The Congress withdrew from the Parbhani and Chandrapur-Wardha-Gadchiroli local bodies, in favour of the NCP. In response, the NCP withdrew from the Latur-Osmanabad-Beed local bodies, facilitating the unopposed election of Dilip Deshmukh, the brother of Vilasrao.

In Amravati, the NCP had not officially withdrawn from the poll fray and the ballot paper carried the name of the candidate. But, Congress party sources say that the NCP supported the Congress in the constituency. The Parbhani results are a shot in the arm for the NCP as its sitting MLC Rajani Satav recently re-joined the Congress.

In by-elections to fill vacancies in Sangli and Konkan, the NCP retained the Sangli seat, while the Shiv Sena wrested the Konkan seat from the NCP.

In the 78-member Upper House, the NCP tally goes up to 15 from 14, as it has retained Parbhani and Sangli. Even though the party lost the Konkan local bodies seat, Tadas, who contested the last election as an Independent from Wardha-Chandrapur-Gadchiroli was the NCP candidate this time and retained the seat. The BJP has added one to its tally of 16.

UNI

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report