Despite the loss, BJP retains the top slot in the Maharashtra civic polls with 1061 councillors.
Opposition Congress on Monday won 122 seats and bagged eight municipal president's post in the third round of municipal council and nagar panchayat polls in Maharashtra, while the ruling BJP won 116 seats. Despite the loss, BJP retains the overall top spot. Polling was held on Sunday for the third phase of elections in 19 municipal councils and two nagar panchayats in Aurangabad, Nanded, Bhandara and Gadchiroli districts.
In Aurangabad, Congress won 32 councils against BJP's 11. In Congress stronghold Nanded, the party managed to win 73 council seats while BJP managed to get 29.
In Bhandara and Gadchiroli, however, the equation was the opposite. BJP won 43 seats in Bhandara and Congress 12. In Gadchiroli, BJP won 33 councils and Congress 5.
Despite the loss in the third phase, BJP retained its overall top position with a tally of 1,090 councillors. The ruling party also won eight posts of municipal council president in the third phase, taking the tally of its council presidents to 64.
At the end of three phases, BJP continued to remain the single largest party while Congress finished second with 894 seats, followed by NCP at 786 and Shiv Sena at 598.
NCP and an independent candidate bagged one post of council president each.
The break-up of council presidents' tally at the end of phase 3 is: BJP 64, Congress 33, NCP 21. Sena had won 26 council chief posts earlier but drew blank in the third phase. Independents bagged two council president posts. The fourth and final phase will be held on January 8, 2017.
Apart from BJP and Congress, NCP won 78 municipal council seats in the third phase, independents 28, Lok Bharati five, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha two, Samajwadi Party one and Shiv Sena 38. In Nanded district, MIM bagged five seats while BSP won two.
Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan managed to defend the Congress bastion in his home district of Nanded to some extent, where the party won 72 of the 197 seats. Congress also won six municipal council president's posts in the district.
BJP did well in Bhandara and Gadchiroli, winning 70 of the total 132 seats in the two districts. In Umari municipal council in Nanded district, NCP swept all the 17 seats. Reacting to the third phase poll results, BJP state unit president Raosaheb Danve said they showed that BJP had maintained its numero uno position.
"In the third phase, 116 BJP nominees won the polls as members of the civic bodies," he said. "This is a significant rise compared to the last poll figures of 25 in these bodies," he said. "BJP has taken a decisive lead and is on top spot," he added.
This was an endorsement of the change at the Centre and in Maharashtra in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in 2014, and of development agenda of BJP governments, he claimed.
Ashok Chavan expressed satisfaction over results, noting that in Nanded district, where Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed five rallies on a single day, people still backed Congress.
(With inputs from PTI)