Cakewalk for More

A jubilant More, later talking to media persons, claimed that several MVA corporators ignored the party whip and had voted for him. Congress workers later took out a victory procession from the district collectorate. It culminated into a meeting at Congress House. The meeting was addressed by all the prominent leaders in the district including Ajit Pawar.

More8217;s victory was considered a forgone conclusion since the Congress enjoys huge numerical strength in the local self-government constituency. The corporators of Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad, members of zilla parishad and three cantonment boards and members of the 11 municipal councils in the district were the voters for this election. With the exception of Pune and Indapur, Congress controls almost all the bodies in the district.

More claimed that the unrest among the MVA corporators was reflected in the result. He said Shirole could secure only 24 votes out of 224 in the 11 municipal councils. Substantiating his claim, More pointed out that Congress had a strength of 365 votes while he had secured 401 votes. More claimed that he had secured 77 votes in Pune against the party strength of 39 and all the 25 votes of Lonavla eventhough the party had a strength of nine.

Launching an attack on Suresh Kalmadi, More said people and political workers had been deeply hurt because of his betrayal. Accusing Kalmadi of introducing money power into politics, More said the voters had 8220;cut the Kalmadi cult8221;.