Hung verdict in BMC polls
Mumbai: Making giant strides in the Shiv Sena citadel of Mumbai, BJP on Thursday won 82 seats in the fiercely fought BMC polls, just two seats behind the estranged saffron ally, but both were well short of the magic figure of 114 needed to control the civic body.
The hung verdict will reset the political calculations as no party is in the position to rule the country’s richest civic body on its own and alliance seems inevitable.
However, it is not yet clear whether the saffron allies, who share power both in Maharashtra and at the Centre, will get back together or new combinations will emerge.
In the counting of votes held on Thursday, the Congress was relegated to the third position with 31 seats, whereas the NCP and the Raj Thackeray’s MNS were reduced to 9 and 7 seats, respectively.
AIMIM, which had made its maiden entry into the Maharashtra Assembly with two seats in the last polls, won three seats on debut in the BMC elections, Samajwadi Party six, Akhil Bhartiya Sena one and Independents four.
The results came as a shot in the arm for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who spearheaded the BJP’s campaign with focus on transparency.
The BJP also came out with flying colours in other municipal corporations and local bodies. Ten municipal corporations, 25 Zilla Parishads and 283 Panchayat Samitis went to polls on February 16 and 21.
The BJP’s victory came as a major morale-booster for the party which is in the midst of gruelling assembly polls in five states, including key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, where it is pitted against strong opponents.
The calumny-filled campaign for control of BMC had even cast a shadow on the stability of the state government, with the Sena threatening to walk out and putting the government on notice.
In the outgoing civic body, Sena had 89 seats, BJP 32, Congress 51, NCP 14, SP 8, MNS 28, PWP 1, and Independents 4. (PTI)