BJP-Shinde Sena Sweep Maharashtra Civic Polls
Coupled with a decent performance by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, the BJP is now in the driver's seat to govern the cash-rich civic body
Mumbai: The BJP-led Mahayuti ended the Thackeray hegemony over Mumbai, results to the civic body election results showed on Friday. In the 227-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), of the 204 seats for which results had been declared at 10.30 pm, the BJP won 85 and its ally Shiv Sena (Shinde) 25. The half-way mark is 114. The Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray won 60 seats and his cousin Raj Thackeray’s MNS five. The Congress, which fought separately, bagged 19 seats.
The BJP also triumphed in Pune, where it made mincemeat of the alliance of NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, Nagpur, Navi Mumbai and Thane. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is set to come to power in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, where elections were held on January 15.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the people of Mumbai for “blessing” the NDA and promised good governance and improved easy of living.
In elections to 27 municipal bodies across the state, with 2,869 seats up for grabs, the BJP won close to 1,500, and the Sena-Shinde about 330, the second largest. when information was last available.
The Congress, which contested the polls in alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, won the Latur civic body, Bhiwandi and Kolhapur, and about 300 seats statewide to take the third place.
The Sharad Pawar NCP won about 30 seats overall.
AIMIM Asaduddin Owaisi's door-to-door campaign saw the party winning 114 seats across the state, against about 80 in the previous election. The AIMIM won 33 seats in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, 21 in Malegaon, 15 in Amravati, 13 in Nanded, 10 in Dhule, eight in Solapur, six in Mumbai, five in Thane, two in Jalgaon and one in Chandrapur.
The State Election Commission is yet to release an official statement on all the results. An official said the final results may be announced late in the night.
The undivided Sena, in alliance with the BJP, had been ruling the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest civic body with a budget of `75,000 crore, since 1985, barring a five-year period in 1992-97. In 2017, the Shiv Sena held on to power by two seats.
Fadnavis has emerged as the man of the moment, with the BJP under his leadership surpassing its previous high of 82 seats in the 2017 BMC elections
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the next BMC mayor will be Hindu as well as Marathi. He taunted the Shiv Sena (UBT) saying had they not betrayed Balasaheb Thackeray’s principles, this situation would have arisen. “The result showed that the real Thackeray brand belonged to only Balasaheb,” he said.
Going by the results declared, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has managed to maintain its hold on Marathi-dominated areas in Central and Eastern Mumbai. However, in island city and western suburbs, where the non-Maharashtrians are in majority, the BJP surged ahead decisively. The Congress’ decision to contest independently also played in the hands of the saffron party, creating a divide in opposition votes.
While the Shiv Sena won 84 seats, BJP had come perilously close with 82 seats. Since then, the saffron party had been desperately trying to wrest power from the Shiv Sena in the BMC.
