‘Took support for granted’: BJP ponders MLC setbacks, including in strongholds

When the elections were announced, the BJP claimed it was confident about two seats — the teachers’ constituency in Nagpur and the graduates’ seats in Amravati — as these areas are its stronghold. The party lost both.

By fielding sitting MLC Nago Ganar from the Nagpur teachers’ constituency, the BJP had reposed its faith in its tried-and-tested local leadership. The BJP has held the seat since 2010. Its campaign included heavyweights like Union minister Nitin Gadkari, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, all of whom call Nagpur their home. Yet, Sudhakar Adbale of the Congress polled 16,700 votes, more than double of Ganar’s 8,211 votes.

With the RSS headquarters and a strong BJP cadre taking to the field, Ganar’s loss has come as a shock to the BJP. For the past 12 years, the party has made deep inroads among the teachers there, through various educational unions and organisations.

In the Amravati graduates’ seat, BJP former minister and sitting MLC Ranjit Patil lost to the Congress’s Dheeraj Lingade after a fiercely contested election, where counting took over 30 hours.

What is notable is that both Nagpur and Amravati are in the Vidarbha region, where the BJP has greater political clout. In the 2019 Assembly polls, it won 29 of the 62 seats from Vidarbha, while Gadkari retained the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat. In the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, though, the Shiv Sena’s Anandrao Adsul had lost to Independent Navneet Rana.

Party insiders said, “We took our supporters among teachers and graduates for granted. Also, we should have changed our candidates. Thirdly, social engineering among various communities within the teachers’ and graduates’ constituencies was overlooked. Fourthly, the offer to restore the Old Pension Scheme worked in the Opposition’s favour.”

Elsewhere, the BJP failed to wrest the Aurangabad teachers’ constituency from the NCP despite concerted efforts, with Kiran Patil losing to the NCP’s sitting MLC, Vikram Kale. The BJP, which identified Aurangabad as a “difficult turf”, imported Patil from the Congress but still failed to get the desired result.

The party took solace in its sole victory in the Konkan teachers’ constituency, where Dyneshwar Mhatre defeated sitting MLC Balaram Patil of the Peasant and Workers Party, as it gives the BJP a greater foothold in the coastal region.

The counting for the Nashik graduates’ seat saw major twists and turns. Congress rebel Satyajeet Tambe pulled off a brilliant win as an Independent against BJP rebel Shubhangi Patil, who fought as an Independent and was backed by the MVA. The BJP, which backed Tambe, has already made an offer to him to formally join the party.

A former Youth Congress president, Satyajeet Tambe revolted against the party after the Congress offered the ticket to his father and sitting MLC Sudhir Tambe. Later, Sudhir Tambe turned down the Congress offer and supported his son’s bid as an Independent. The Congress has suspended both.

Reacting to Thursday’s results, Fadnavis said, “The defeats in Nagpur and Amravati have saddened us. We’ll have to find out where we failed. We’ll do serious introspection and make course corrections.”

Unlike in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, voters for the teachers’ and graduates’ Legislative Council seats are only teachers and graduates living in the area.