In what was considered one of the most prestigious fights in the Maharashtra civic elections to 29 municipal bodies, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s kin Vivek Kaloti has lost to the Congress from Amravati.
All four Congress candidates in the ward won with resounding votes. The most prestigiouscontest of the Amravati Municipal Corporation was that of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ relative Vivek Kaloti. Fadnavis has suffered a double blow as MLA Shrikant Bhartiya’s brother Vivek Bhartiya has also been defeated.
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There are a total of 87 wards in the Amravati Municipal Corporation. One corporator is elected from each ward. Any party or alliance needs 44 seats to form the government. In 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party was the largest party with 45 seats. It is estimated that the BJP can cross the majority mark even now.
BJP’s Vivek Kaloti was elected unopposed as the standing committee chairman of the Amravati Municipal Corporation in 2018.
Elections to 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of over six years, with their terms having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.
The battlegrounds include Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Mumbai, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.
Chief Minister Fadnavis, along with his deputies Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, campaigned extensively across Maharashtra, while cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray concentrated their effortson Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, where Uddhav held a rally.
Fadnavis on Thursday appealed to the people to turn out in large numbers to vote in the civic polls, saying widespread participation was key to building better cities. Speaking to reporters after exercising his franchise in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation polls, Fadnavis said not voting amounts to a dereliction of responsibility. “I appeal to everyone to come out and vote to create better cities,” he said.
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Fadnavis slammed the Opposition for casting doubts on institutions like the State Election Commission. “They should write a new script and stop practising what they will speak tomorrow after defeat. Our win is sure in all the 29 corporations,” the senior BJP leader said.
Fadnavis also said that the Opposition’s criticism of the Printing Auxiliary Display (PAD) units during the civic elections was unnecessary, and asserted that the machines will be used if the EVMs do not function. There will be data stored in the PAD units, he added.
