Early Trends Favour BJP–Shiv Sena Alliance In Mumbai Civic Polls

The BJP and its ally Shiv Sena were leading in the high-stakes Mumbai municipal corporation elections according to early trends, as vote counting began on Friday morning.

Although there was no official confirmation from the State Election Commission, television channels reported that the BJP was ahead in 16 of Mumbai’s 227 wards, while the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was ahead in 10 wards.

Counting commenced at 10 am.

The Thackeray cousins, who reunited after two decades ahead of Thursday’s polls, were trailing the ruling alliance in Mumbai. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) was ahead in 10 wards, while the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) was leading in six.

In Thane, considered Shinde’s stronghold, his party was leading in nine of the 131 wards, ahead of ally BJP, which was leading in six wards, according to television reports.

In Pune, the BJP appeared to be outperforming its ally NCP. The saffron party was ahead in 32 of the 165 wards, while the NCP, led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, was leading in 14 seats.

Exit polls have predicted a clean sweep for the ruling Mahayuti alliance in elections to the 29 municipal corporations held on Thursday.

Voter turnout in the Mumbai civic polls stood at 52.94 per cent, down from 55.53 per cent in the 2017 elections, officials said on Friday.

Elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has an annual budget exceeding Rs 74,400 crore, were held after a delay of four years.

These were the first BMC elections since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, when Shinde broke away with a majority of the party’s MLAs and joined hands with the BJP to form the government.

The undivided Shiv Sena had controlled India’s richest civic body for 25 years, from 1997 to 2022.

In a significant political development ahead of the polls, Uddhav and Raj Thackeray reunited last month, while rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The elections to 29 municipal corporations were conducted after a gap of several years, with the terms of most having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine are located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised region in India.

Voting was held in the municipal corporations of Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai–Virar, Kalyan–Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira–Bhayandar, Nanded–Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi–Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli–Miraj–Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.

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(with PTI inputs)