Maharashtra civic polls: BJP wins Latur, Chandrapur, Congress retains Parbhani

New Delhi: The chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to wrest power in the Congress-dominated Latur civic body and retained its power in the Chandrapur municipal corporation. The Congress, however, has retained the Parbhani civic body. On Wednesday, voting for 201 seats in the three municipal corporations was held. Winning 40 out of 70 seats in Latur is a big victory for the BJP. Latur was controlled by Congress legislator Amit Deshmukh, son of former chief minister the late Vilasrao Deshmukh. In Chandrapur in Vidarbha, the BJP won 32 of the 66 seats and the Congress is a distant second with only 17 seats. The Congress won in Parbhani by wresting power from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). On Wednesday, around 62 per cent turnout was registered in the polling held for the Chandrapur, Parbhani and Latur municipal corporations, State Election Commissioner J S Saharia had said. Due to extreme heat conditions prevalent in several parts of the state, the voting timing was extended by one hour to 6:30 pm by the state Election Commission. "Chandrapur, Parbhani and Latur recorded 57 per cent, 70 per cent and 60 per cent voting, respectively. Around 62 per cent, people exercised their franchise in the polls today," Saharia said, reported PTI. A total of 1,285 candidates were in the fray for the 201 seats in the three municipal corporations, whose fate was decided by 7.93 lakh voters across 1,038 polling stations. The stakes were high especially for the BJP (which is presently ruling the state) as it is not in power in these three municipal corporations. Chandrapur was the home turf of senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and as many as 460 candidates are in the fray whose fate was decided by 3.02 lakh voters. In the Latur corporation (70-member), it was a test for BJP leader and state minister Sambhajirao Nilangekar and the local Congress MLA Amit Deshmukh. Congress, which used to control the corporation, had got a drubbing in the recent local body polls in Latur district. 407 candidates were in the fray whose fate was decided by 2.78 lakh voters. In the Parbhani municipal corporation, there were 418 candidates in the fray and the number of voters were 2.12 lakh.