The results of the Kalyan-Dombivali civic elections have proved that the MNS turned out to be the proverbial Frankenstein’s monster for the Congress-NCP. Ironically, while the Shiv Sena’s tally of seats increased, the Congress, NCP and the BJP have all suffered major setbacks because of the MNS.
Though MNS chief Raj Thackeray has been persistently attacking the Sena, the party under Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership actually improved its tally. It is also strange that the anti-incumbency factor worked against the BJP, since it had little effect on the Sena. On the other hand, the Congress, which ignored acts of vandalism by the MNS and even encouraged it on the hope that the Raj-led party would eat into the Sena’s votes, lost anti-incumbency votes to the MNS.
“The controversy surrounding the chief minister escalated just a day before polling. We lost 12 seats by a margin of less than 150 votes, which indicates that the floating votes went against us,” a senior Congress leader said.
Another lesson for the Congress, which it has learnt time and again, is that its alliance partner NCP is completely unreliable. Independent MLA Ganpat Gaikwad, who supports NCP in the state, had fielded 12 candidates against the Congress. Though no Gaikwad-supported Independent candidate won, they ensured the defeat of the Congress’ candidates. “It was an open secret that Gaikwad had backing from NCP leader Ajit Pawar,” the Congress leader said.