Embracing prime minister Narendra Modi's development plans, the polling trend across urban parts of Maharashtra showed a clear bent for BJP. Going by the results, the party has done significantly well in all urban constituencies — Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and Thane. On most such seats, party candidates have won by margins running over 40,000 votes.
Take the case of Malabar Hill, perhaps one of the most upmarket and urban assembly constituencies of the state. Here, BJP's Mangal Prabhat Lodha has won by a margin of 68,686 votes. His closest rival was Shiv Sena's Arvind Devji, who finished with 29,132 votes, while Congress's Susiben Shah finished third with barely 10,928 votes.
Similarly, in Versova, Bandra (West), Andheri (West), Colaba, all highly urbane seats, BJP candidates have performed significantly better than runner-ups. Going by trends, the party, in fact, was leading or had won almost 50% of the total seats.
Beyond Mumbai, in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, where statehood is a contentious issue, saffron party has perhaps put on its best show ever. Of the 62 seats in the region, BJP has won, or was leading in, 42, while Congress has been reduced to just about a dozen seats.
BJP candidates have managed to win all the six seats in and around Nagpur, while several prominent Congress and NCP leaders had to face the wrath. Prominent losers from Congress include deputy speaker Vasant Purke from Ralegaon, Nitin Raut (Nagpur-North), Rajendra Shekhawat (Amravati), Anees Ahmad (Nagpur-Central), Satish Chaturvedi (Nagpur-South), and Rahul Thakre (Yavatmal).
The party has also put on a good show in other urban seats, such as Pune cantonment where its candidate Dilip Kamble defeated Congress's Ramesh Bhagave with a margin of almost 15,000 votes. BJP candidates also swept Nashik (Central), Nashik (East) and Nashik (West).
"BJP has traditionally been considered a party of upper caste and urban voters. However, this time, under the Modi wave, the trend has picked up and strengthened further," said a political analyst.
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