Third front and rebels fail to make a dent

The 2009 election results saw the ruling and the opposition combines exchanging their previously-held pockets in Vidarbha. While the Shiv Sena-BJP camp suffered a major setback in the cotton belt of Amravati division, the Congress-NCP alliance got punched out of its eastern Vidarbha citadel.

The final numbers look much the same as in 2004. The ruling alliance has won 28 seats, three short of its 2004 tally, while the Sena-BJP pocketed 27 seats, one less than its previous standing. Independents won four, Prakash Ambedkar’s Bharip-Bahujan Mahasangh wrested two seats in Akola and the third-front bagged one seat.

In the delimitation exercise, Vidarbha had lost four assembly segments, all of which were held by the Sena-BJP. 

The results, said political analyst Dr Raju Mishra, are in line with the trends of May Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress improved its numbers by three to win 24 seats, while the NCP ended up with four seats, seven short of its 2004 tally. The Sena retained its eight seats, while the BJP won 19, one short of its previous tally.

In a closely fought contest, Raosaheb Shekhawat, president Pratibha Patil’s son, finally registered an emphatic victory in his maiden election defeating Sunil Deshmukh, a Congress rebel and former minister, who was seeking re-election from Amravati for the fourth time.

The big story was, however, the defeat of political heavyweights like sitting minister Anees Ahmed, former minister Satish Chaturvedi and sitting minister and NCP leader Ramesh Bang from Hingna.

Ahmed, who tried his luck from west Nagpur this time, lost to BJP’s Sudhakar Deshmukh by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.

But Chaturvedi, a former minister and five-time MLA from the east Nagpur constituency, lost to Krishna Khopde of the BJP by more than 35,000 votes. Resentment among voters apart, a strong intra-party rivalry aided his defeat, analysts said.

The Congress-NCP debacle in Nagpur city and district, party insiders admitted, was shocking. A strong Congress bastion, Nagpur city and district — with a total of 12 assembly segments — tilted surprisingly toward the saffron camp, which won eight, while, the Congress-NCP managed to retain four seats as against nine in the previous assembly.

The BJP’s gains in Nagpur helped the alliance overcome the reversals it suffered in Amravati division, where it won only nine of the 30 seats. In 2004, the Sena-BJP alliance had won 19 of the 33 seats in that belt.