KOLHAPUR: The Congress party led by former home minister and senior leader Sushilkumar Shinde and his daughter MLA Praniti Shinde suffered unprecedented defeat in the Solapur Municipal Corporation (SMC) when the civic polls results were announced on Thursday. Solapur is the home turf of Shinde and the party was ruling the civic body since its inception in 1963.The BJP turned out to be largest party in the SMC, winning 49 out of the total 102 seats. It fell short of three seats to attain majority and likely to go for post-poll alliance with its natural ally Shiv Sena, which won 21 seats.The Congress won 14 seats, while the AIMIM bagged nine seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won four each. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) could win just one seat, as against three seats in the 2012 polls. Over 620 candidates were in fray for the 102 seats.Solapur Central MLA Praniti Shinde told TOI, "I think the anti-incumbency factor played a major role in the defeat of my party. Also, the BJP distributed large amounts of money to the voters and polarised the votes on religious lines, which is a major threat to secular politics. The entry of AIMIM, too, affected our prospects." Congress had contested the election under the leadership of Praniti Shinde.She seemed surprised over the results as she hoped that resentment of voters against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetization decision would reflect in the voting. "I am surprised that the people voted for the BJP despite saying that demonetisation adversely affected them. We tried a lot to reach out to the voters and demanded a mandate against demonetisation."Shinde played down the impact of defections on the results. "Most of the defections took place to Shiv Sena and I don't think it has made any difference in BJP's performance," she said.District guardian minister Vijay Deshmukh of the BJP said, "The Congress regime in the SMC was corrupt and the people voted for development. We fought the election on the issues of development. BJP will ensure more funds and development projects for the city. A decision on tie-up with Shiv Sena will be taken after discussions with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis."The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) contested 32 seats, mostly at places where Congress had won in 2012, and made severe dent in the Congress-dominated areas. The AIMIM won 9 seats and remained at second position at several places. Responding to the claims of Congress leaders, AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel said, "We contested just 32 seats; the Congress leadership is to be blamed for their defeat as they couldn't get the secular votes even in the seats where we did not contest. We will continue to contest on our strongholds irrespective of allegations by other parties."Solapur is one of the 20 cities in the country selected for the central government's ambitious 'smart city' project. However, no funds have been released by the government for undertaking smart city projects. The citizens are of the view that the Congress undermined the scheme and ensured its slow implementation.Santosh Patil, from Twin Solapur City area said, "Politics has taken the centre stage and implementation of the smart city projects has been delayed. The Congress never heeded the demands of citizens to develop the gardens and lakes. Several crores of rupees has been spent on cleaning of Sambhaji Lake, however the situation has not changed. Also, the transport service is in bad shape."The local leaders of the Congress said that the negative perception created against the party by the opposition is the major reason for its defeat. "The state government had stopped development funds and we had to depend solely on the SMC's coffers to undertake development projects. Instances such week-long strike of the workers of the city transport service over pending salaries and pensions led to severe inconvenience to citizens, resulting in a negative perception about our governance," said a local leader.RED SUBHEADNCP largest party in Solapur ZPThe Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) became the largest party in the 68-member Solapur zilla parishad with 27 seats. For the first time, BJP became the second-largest party in the ZP, winning 15 seats.Since no party gained clear majority, parties will ahve to go for tie-ups to reach the magic figure of 35. If the NCP, Congress and the Shetkari Kamgar Paksha join hands they can gain majority.The Shiv Sena and the BJP had aligned with local fronts and local leaders of various parties at many places. The total number of seats won by such fronts is 12. Even if BJP ties up with Shiv Sena (6 seats) and the local fronts, the tally comes to 33, ie, two short of majority.The victory of the NCP is being attributed to MLA Babanrao Shinde who managed to get the party candidates win in five out of seven seats in Madha taluka.

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