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BJP gifts Nashik mayor post to MNS

Last-minute NCP abstention makes it a cakewalk for Yatin Wagh.

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It was anybody’s game until the morning of the Nashik mayoral polls on Thursday. The contest was being interpreted in many ways, with NCP leader and guardian minister Chhagan Bhujbal trying his best to keep the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) at bay. However, the plethora of speculation ended with the largest elected party in the Nashik municipality keeping the mayoral seat for itself.

With the support of the BJP and the Jan Rajya Party, Advocate Yatin Wagh was elected the party’s first mayor in the state. Apart from its own 40 seats, the MNS was supported by BJP’s 14 votes and the Jan Rajya Party’s two votes. This, while the 20 NCP corporators, 15 Congressmen, three RPI members and six Independents abstained. It was a straight win for Wagh when the 19 corporators of the Shiv Sena walked out while others stayed neutral.

Wagh won with 56 votes as against 3 votes of the CPM’s Tanaji Jaibhave (the party has a total strength of three in the house). Earlier, of the 11 candidates in fray, nine, including those from Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP Independents and one from the MNS withdrew their nominations, leaving Wagh and Jaibhave in fray.

Also, it was being conjectured till early in the day that the Sena may support an Independent supported by the NCP and the Congress. Though BJP MLA Girish Mahajan on his arrival in the city on Thursday morning made clear his party’s support for the MNS, the magic figure was nowhere in sight for the MNS.

A little while later the NCP, following a directive from its party chief straight out of Delhi, decided to abstain. A surprised Shiv Sena then staged a walk-out. Though the Shiv Sena, it’s believed, was set to support the MNS, abstinence by the Cong-NCP combine and the Independents left the coast clear for the MNS. A phone call between MNS chief Raj Thackeray and NCP boss Sharad Pawar early in the day, turned the tables on Bhujbal.

It is expected that the MNS will return the NCP favour during the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled for March 30, when the latter’s two candidates are likely to fall short of votes. With its 12 MLAs, MNS is likely to make up for the shortfall.

Thackeray commented on the Sena walk-out, saying, “They (Sena) don’t mind if the Nagpur BJP is supported by the Muslim League, a party with a completely different ideology, but here, if the BJP supports us, they are upset. This is for people to see and judge their character.”

For the post of dy mayor, seven of the nine candidates in fray withdrew their nominations, leaving the contest open between BJP’s Satish Kulkarni and CPM’s Tanaji Jaibhave. Kulkarni polled 56 votes as against three by Jaibhave.

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