In the trends of Maharashtra civic elections, BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is ahead in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS alliance is lagging behind. 52.94% voting was recorded in BMC.
Mumbai: In the initial trends coming from the counting of votes in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Friday, the BJP-Shiv Sena Mahayuti alliance is leading in 93 wards, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS alliance is lagging on 57 seats. Of these, UBT Sena is leading on 48 seats, MNS on 8 and NCP-SP on 1 seat. According to the initial data of the ongoing vote counting, Congress is ahead in 10 wards and Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction is ahead in 1 ward. In the BMC election results so far, BJP’s Navnath Ban won ward number 135, Shiv Sena (Shinde)’s Varsha Tembawalkar won BMC ward 51 by defeating NCP-SP candidate. Shiv Sena (Shinde)’s Rekha Ram Yadav won BMC’s Ward 1, with Congress’ Sheetal Mhatre coming second.
According to official trends, in the ongoing BMC vote counting, BJP is leading in 17 wards, Shiv Sena (UBT) in 9, Shiv Sena in 5, Congress in 3, MNS in 1, AIMIM in 2, Samajwadi Party in 1, NCP in 1 and NOTA in 1 ward. According to early trends, in the Nagpur civic polls, BJP is set to create a tsunami in the Chief Minister’s home town, leading on 78 seats out of 151, while Congress is ahead on 22 seats.
In the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), BJP has overtaken the Pawars by leading on 50 out of 165 seats, while both the NCP factions are leading on 5 seats and the Congress-UBT alliance is leading on 7 seats. In the first results from Pune, three BJP candidates, Rajendra Shilimkar, Tanvi Diwekar and Mansi Deshpande, were elected from Ward No. 20 of Shankar Maharaj Math-Bibvewadi area, while NCP’s Gaurav Ghule also emerged victorious by defeating BJP’s Mahendra Sundecha. In Thane Municipal Corporation, the home turf of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, BJP is leading in 21 wards out of 131, while NCP is leading in 6 and UBT-MNS-NCP(SP) is leading in 6 seats. In Nashik, trends show BJP leading on 12 seats out of 122, MVA-MNS on 9, and SS-NCP on 11.
According to preliminary data, in Shambhinagar, BJP is leading on 18 seats out of 115, Shiv Sena is leading on 11, UBT Sena on 7, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi on 1, Congress-NCP(SP) on 5, and NCP on 2 seats. Meanwhile, the recently concluded Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections recorded 52.94 per cent voting, according to data released today by the State Election Commissioner (SEC). The elections to India’s richest municipal corporation, which concluded on Thursday, were marred by allegations made by the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance, which were later refuted by the SEC.
The elections, held after a gap of eight years, were an important civic exercise for Mumbai. The last BMC elections were held in 2017, while the tenure of the previous elected mayor, Kishori Pednekar, ended in March 2022. With the elections over, Mumbai is going to get a new mayor after almost four years. Out of total 1,03,44,315 voters in the voter list, a total of 54,76,043 exercised their franchise. Of the total voters, about 3.7 lakh more men voted than women. A total of 29,23,433 men, 25,52,359 women and 251 transgender voters also cast their votes in 277 wards.
Exit polls have predicted a victory for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, with the Thackeray brothers finishing second and the Congress and its allies failing to put up a strong showing. In the 2017 elections, the undivided Shiv Sena had won 84 seats out of the total 227. While in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party at that time, the alliance had achieved half the figure of 114 seats, of which the BJP had won 82 seats.