Mahayuti Surges in Maharashtra Civic Polls, Poised for BMC Victory

The Congress leads in 10 wards, and Ajit Pawar's NCP faction in , according to preliminary reported data from the ongoing vote counting. In the BMC election resuls so far BJP's Navnath Ban won ward number 135, Varsha Tembavalkar of Shiv Sena (Shinde) won Ward 51 of the BMC, defeating the NCP-SP candidate. Rekha Ram Yadav of Shiv Sena (Shinde) won Ward 1 of the BMC, with Congress' Sheetal Mhatre finishing second.

According to the official trends, the ongoing BMC vote counting showed the BJP leading in 17 wards, followed by Shiv Sena (UBT) with 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.

As per the early trends reported, in the Nagpur civic polls, the BJP is poised for a Tsunmai in the Chief Minister's home city leading in 78 of 151 seats, with the Congress at 22 leads.

In the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) the BJP has displaced the Pawars with leads in 50 of 165 seats, while the two NCP factions lead in 5 and Congress-UBT alliance in 7. According to the official data from PMC, BJP has 47 leads while the NCP factions lead in 8 and the Congress in 5 wards.

In Pune's first results, from Ward No. 20 in the Shankar Maharaj Math-Bibewadi area, three BJP candidates, Rajendra Shilimkar, Tanvi Divekar, and Mansi Deshpande, were elected, while NCP's Gaurav Ghule also emerged victorious, defeating BJP's Mahendra Sundecha.

In Thane Municipal Corporation, the home seat of Deputy CM Eknath Shinde BJP led in 21 of 131 wards, with the NCP at 6 and UBT-MNS-NCP(SP) at 6 leads.

In Nashik, trends showed BJP leading in 12 of 122 seats, MVA-MNS in 9, and SS-NCP in 11.

In Shambhinagar, the BJP led in 18 of 115 seats, Shiv Sena in 11, UBT Sena in 7, Vanchit Bhaujan Aghadi in 1, Congress-NCP(SP) in 5, and NCP in 2, according to initial reported data.

Meanwhile, the recently concluded Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recorded a voter turnout of 52.94 per cent, according to the data released by the State Election Commissioner (SEC) today.

The elections for India's richest municipal corporations, which concluded on Thursday, were marred by allegations by the Shiv Sena (UBT)- MNS alliance, and subsequently refuted by the SEC.

The elections, which were conducted after a gap of eight years, marked a significant civic exercise for Mumbai. The previous BMC elections were held in 2017, while the term of the last elected mayor, Kishori Pednekar, ended in March 2022. With the completion of the polls, Mumbai is set to get a new mayor after nearly four years.

Out of the total 1,03,44,315 voters in the electoral roll, a total of 54,76,043 exercised their right to vote. In total numbers of voters, around 3.7 lakh men exercised their franchise compared to women. A total of 29,23,433 men voted across the 277 wards, 25,52,359 women, and 251 transgender electors also cast their votes.

The exit polls have predicted a victory for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, with the Thackeray brothers finishing second and Congress and its allies failing to put up a strong show.

In the 2017 elections, the undivided Shiv Sena had secured 84 seats out of the total 227. While being in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party at that point, the alliance had secured the halfway mark of 114 seats, with the BJP winning 82 seats.

- ANI