NCP retains its hold over sugar-rich Western Maha

Despite the set- back received in the defeat of its heavyweight minister Vijay Sinha Mohite Patil who lost in Pandharpur, NCP with the alliance partner Congress managed to retain  its strong grip over the sugar bowl of Western Maharashtra.

A large chunk of NCP's state-wide tally of 63 has come from the six districts of Western Maharashtra — Pune, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur where the party captured 24 seats, just one less than the figure of 25 recorded in the 2004 assembly elections.

Congress too appeared to have done well bagging 14 seats in the region which accounts for 70-odd seats out of which the alliance has together claimed as many as 38 as against 20 won by the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron camp.

Even as NCP weathered the rebellion within its ranks to some extent, the defeat of  its prominent minister Vijay Mohite Patil in Pandharpur at the hands of an independent Bharat Bhalke, supported by a local pro-farmer outfit, by around 33,000 votes dealt a heavy blow to the party as he represented the powerful cooperative lobby which traditionally controls the state politics. (Both Jayant Patil, NCP's home minister and RR Patil, the party state president and former deputy chief minister who had stepped down after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, romped home with handsome margins exceeding 50,000 votes  from Islampur and Tasgaon respectively from Sangli district, known for its cooperative movement base in Maharashtra.

Though Congress suffered a jolt in Sangli city where its minister Madan Patil lost to BJP's Sambhaji Pawar by over 11,ooo votes, the party nominee from Palus-Kategaon and another incumbent minister Dr Patangrao Kadam retained his seat.

NCP-Congress combine won six out of 11 seats in Solapur district in which union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's debutant daughter Praniti's victory from central Solapur was the highlight as she humbled sitting CPM MLA Narsaiyya Adam.

In Satara, NCP's Makrand Patil who rebelled and fought the Vai seat in the district as an independent emerged victorious while Jaykumar Gore, a Congress rebel won from Mann.

In Pune district, Congress-NCP alliance captured 11 out of a total of 21 assembly seats notwithstanding the victories of three NCP rebels-- Vilas Lande (Bhosari), Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad) and Ramesh Thorat (Daund).