Buoyed with its success in the first phase of local body polls, the BJP has launched a strong offensive against the Congress-NCP for the second, centering its campaign on anti-corruption and developmental planks. Bastions of some of the Opposition heavyweights, such as the Pawar family’s Baramati and Amit Deshmukh’s constituency Latur, are set to elect their local bodies’ representatives. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, out campaigning in Aurangabad, Latur, Pune, Baramati, Gangapur, Ausa, etc, has harped on the anti-corruption plank. “Municipal councils cannot become the centres of wheeling-dealing and awarding contracts to the politically high and mighty. The rampant corruption in the municipal councils will have to be firmly uprooted to bring greater accountability and responsibility in the administration. The municipal councils cannot become epicentres of corruption,” Fadnavis said. Watch What Else is Making News In the first phase of 164 municipal council and nagar panchayat elections, the BJP has taken a clear lead, beating the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena. “The success rate of 80 per cent in the first phase was very encouraging. It was unprecedented for the party as there were some districts where we got a breakthrough after 40 years,” Fadnavis acknowledged. The chief minister also defended the Centre’s demonetisation decision. Claiming that the demonetisation would prove advantageous to the unorganised sectors and farmers by protecting them against exploitation from the rich and powerful, he said, “Economic reforms are linked to the social upliftment of the poor. Maharashtra will be a leading state in the fight against corruption and in bringing greater transparency to the system.” On the development front, the chief minister spoke of issues such as affordable housing, pollution, tacking solid waste management complete with sewage treatment plants, and projects such as smart cities and smart villages.
