Supporters of Maha Vikas Aghadi celebrate outside the Congress Bhavan in Pune on Friday. (Photo by Ashish Kale)
A year after it came to power in Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) passed its first litmus test by winning four of the five graduates’ and teachers’ constituency seats in the state Legislative Council. The BJP could manage only one seat.
Hailing the success of MVA, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Friday that the people of Maharashtra have accepted the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. “The victories reveal that the people of Maharashtra have accepted the MVA regime,” he told media persons.
Maintaining that MVA performed creditably as it snatched seats in BJP bastions, he added: “The victory in Nagpur, from where BJP leaders like Nitin Gadkari and Devendra Fadnavis come, shows people’s confidence in the MVA government. We had never won these seats.”
Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant, meanwhile, said: “The BJP has been describing MVA as the government of ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’… Now, Amar, Akbar and Anthony have given a befitting reply to Robert Seth (the villain in the Hindi film). In future, too, they will continue to flatten the ego of Robert Seth.”
His party colleague and minister Nitin Raut said, “The MVA went to the polls with a definite strategy and it has paid off. We put up a united fight and the results are there for everyone to see. We will continue to remain united and fight all future elections together.”
“Nagpur is the headquarters of RSS and everything related to elections is closely monitored by the RSS. Top BJP leaders are from Nagpur. Yet, the MVA scored a resounding victory there. It is a victory of Dikshaboomi over Sanghbhoomi,” he added.
State Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat said, “Wherever MVA candidates lost, it is our collective loss… This is an united government.”
Meanwhile, BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the defeat was unexpected. “Our defeat in the council poll was unexpected. We miscalculated combined strength of MVA. Our workers and leaders had taken lot of efforts, but it seems we did not properly evaluate the strength of the three parties. We thought we will do better, but the results were different. In future, we will enter the poll arena with proper strategy.”
BJP state chief Chandrakant Patil said, “The MVA won on the strength of the three parties. We have been challenging them to face us one to one. We will analyse what went wrong and take corrective measures.”