Mumbai, (IANS): The BJP bagged the Panvel civic body in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, but was virtually rejected in the Muslim-dominated Bhiwandi and Malegaon towns as per election results declared on Friday, the day when the NDA central government celebrated its third year in power.
In Panvel Municipal Corporation’s first civic polls after it was elevated to a corporation last October, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 51 of the 78 seats where it contested the polls independently.
The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and Peasants & Workers Party which fought in alliance, secured 27 seats, of which the PWP bagged 23 and the other two partners secured two each.
The BJP had virtually made it a prestige issue to win the civic body and left no stone unturned to capture the corporation, and in the process, Shiv Sena, other parties and independents were wiped out.
Panvel and surroundings are considered critical in the near future with the upcoming new international airport, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and a new city, Naina, which will attract investments in excess of Rs 60,000 crores.
In Malegaon Municipal Corporation with 84 seats in the Nashik district, the Congress emerged the largest single party with 28, followed by Nationalist Congress Party’s 20.