Maharashtra civic polls results a stamp of approval for govt: CM

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said that the emergence of Congress as the leading party in the five municipal corporations was a stamp of approval from the people about his government's developmental policies.

Chavan, who is in Delhi, said in a statement that his party had emerged as the largest party with 411 seats out of the total 1,615 in the 15 municipal corporations in the state.

NCP is second with 330, Sena 272 and BJP 234, he said.

The chief minister said Congress' success in Chandrapur, the home town of state BJP president Sudhir Mungantiwar is an indicator of things to come in the next assembly elections.

He attributed the victory in Latur to Congress policies under the leadership of Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and MLA Amit Deshmukh.

Chavan said the people have shown parties who are critical of the congress their place in this election.

Congress today swept the Latur municipal corporation and emerged as the single largest party in three of the four other civic bodies in Maharashtra, where elections were held on Sunday.

Voting was held in Latur, Chandrapur and Parbhani which were upgraded into corporations and also in Malegaon and Bhiwandi-Nizampur corporations.