Cong romps home in Bhiwandi where Rahul Gandhi fights RSS case

A defamation case against Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker seems to have worked well for the party. That is, if one were to go by the overwhelming victory in the recently held Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation elections in Maharastra’s Thane district.

In the 90-seat strong Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation, the Congress bagged 47 seats and is set to elect its mayor soon. The Congress, in fact, bettered its performance dramatically over the last elections in 2012, when it held only 26 seats, but the Samajwadi Party took a massive fall from 17 seats then to just two now, according to reports.

Incidentally, while the Congress Vice-President didn’t campaign for the municipal elections in Bhiwandi, his frequent visits there due to an ongoing defamation case seems to have done the magic for the Congress. A local RSS activist had filed a case against Rahul Gandhi in a local court regarding a 2014 election rally alleged remark on RSS followers.

A setback for BJP

More importantly, this is a major setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Maharashtra government that had a good run in the local polls held earlier this year. In February, Congress did not perform well in the 10 municipal corporations including Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Thane, Pune, Pimpari-Chichwad, Nasik, Nagpur, Amravati, Solapur, Akola and Ulhasnagar.

The BJP came a distant second in Bhiwandi-Nizampur and could win only 19 seats, Shiv Sena got 12, the Republican Party of India (RPI) won four, Samajwadi Party two, and other smaller parties and independents bagged the remaining six seats.

Congress also emerged as the single largest party in Malegaon Municipal Corporation in Nashik district. Out of the 84 seats, while Congress bagged 28 seats followed by Nationalist Congress Party's 20, Shiv Sena stood third with 13 and, the BJP could secure only nine. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) bagged seven, the Janata Dal six and a sole independent was elected.

According to the results of the three municipal polls—Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Panvel—that have a total of 252 seats, BJP won 79, Congress 77, Shiv Sena 25, PWP 23 and NCP 22, the AIMIM bagged seven, the JD six, the RPI-A four, the SP two, other parties and independents won seven.