By IANS
Malegaon (Maharashtra) : A newly launched development-oriented outfit Monday stunned established political parties and captured the highest number of seats in the civic elections in the communally sensitive Malegaon town in south Maharashtra.
According to the results of the municipal corporation election declared Monday, 27 seats went to the Indian Muslim Congress.
The party was floated only days before the announcement of the elections by a priest, Mufti Mohammed Ismail, on the one-point plank of development.
Unfazed by the fatwa issued against him by another local priest, Moulana Azhari, and the scorn heaped by stalwarts of the Congress and Janata Dal, Ismail pulled big crowds at his meetings in which he sought votes for his "third front" in the name of development.
While the Congress and the Janata Dal's hopes of winning power were rudely dashed as they managed to muster only 15 and 12 seats respectively, six independents winning the election appear to hold the key to power in the 72-member civic body.
The Shiv Sena won seven seats with its national ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which contested the local election independently, drawing a naught. Two seats each went to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and one to the Samajwadi Party.