NCP sweeps councils in Maharashtra

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) emerged as the party with the highest winning seats in the municipal council elections that are believed to be 'mini assembly' elections. It won a majority of the municipal councils in Konkan, Western Maharashtra and in Marathwada.

The success of the NCP has raised some eyebrows in the backdrop of some developments in the last few days. Social crusader Anna Hazare has been targeting NCP chief Sharad Pawar and his party on various fronts. Hazare even justified the incident of a youth slapping the NCP chief some weeks ago. The results, in a way, have shown that there was no impact of Hazare's stand in the municipal councils.

The results for 133 municipal councils were declared a day after 168 councils went to polls. Though the official results of all the councils were not declared, the NCP was leading in most of the remaining seats. Of the 2,992 seats from 132 councils, the NCP has either won or was leading in more than 1,100 seats.

Congress was second — either winning or leading in 676 seats. The Shiv Sena and the BJP were much behind the two leading parties winning 325 and 189 seats respectively.

The NCP says it has bagged at least 50 councils, including those it won because of an alliance with local parties. The BJP said the NCP was counting the alliance success as its own.