BJP Maintains Winning Streak In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena Tops Mumbai Tally

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday scored a resounding victory in the Maharashtra civil polls emerging as the largest party in eight of the 10 municipal corporations while finishing a close second to ally Shiv Sena in the latter's Mumbai bastion.

Making giant strides in the Shiv Sena citadel of Mumbai, BJP won 82 seats in the fiercely fought BMC polls, just two less than 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, which 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.

The AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), 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 won six, Akhil Bhartiya Sena closed with one and Independents finished with four seats.

Elections to the cash-rich BMC and nine other civic bodies in the state, which had virtually turned into a battle of prestige for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, heading the state's first BJP-led government, and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, were held on February 21, along with the second phase of polling for 11 zilla parishads (ZPs) and 118 panchayat samitis.

Elated over the mandate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the people of Maharashtra for reposing their faith in the "politics of development" and "good governance" and praised BJP workers, particularly Fadnavis and state party president Raosaheb Danve Patil.

BJP chief Amit Shah said the party would celebrate its impressive show in the Odisha and Maharashtra civic polls as 'vijay utsav' (victory celebration) on February 25 across all its district offices in the country.

Apart from Mumbai, the civic bodies in Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur, had also gone to polls simultaneously.

BJP emerged the number one party in Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur.

Shiv Sena led in Mumbai and adjoining Thane.

Out of the 10 civic bodies, the BJP was holding Nagpur and Akola, while the Congress was ruling Amravati and Solapur, MNS Nashik, NCP Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, and Shiv Sena the BMC (in alliance with the BJP), Thane and Ulhasnagar.

For the 25 ZPs, out of 1,509 seats for 25 ZP elections, BJP won 406, Congress won 309, NCP won 360 and Shiv Sena won 271 and MNS one.

The saffron party also made inroads into the traditional Congress bastions of Latur and Solapur, the backyard of late Vilasrao Deshmukh and the party veteran Sushilkumar Shinde, respectively.

The first phase of polling for 14 ZP and 165 panchayat samitis was held on February 16 where 69 percent voters exercised their franchise, while the second phase for 11 ZPs and 118 panchayat samitis was held on February 21 for which 69 per cent turn out was recorded.

The polling percentage in 10 municipal corporations stood at 56 percent, while it was 55 percent in BMC.