News 24 Desk
Mumbai: Sharad Pawar led NCP is going ahead in Thane Municipal Corporation election as results are coming thick and fast.
The counting of votes to decide the new members of various municipal corporations including Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati, Nagpur and Mumbai municipal corporation and 27 zilla parishads have started this morning.
The voting for municipal corporations was held on Thursday, where a triangular contest is on cards between the Congress-NCP combine, Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance and the Raj Thackeray-led MNS. Billed as a mini-assembly election, the polls will test the political acumen and charisma of not only Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, but also Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray and his son Uddhav Thackeray.
While the Sena is desperately trying to extend its 16-year rule in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for another five years in alliance with BJP and Ramdas Athavale`s RPI, the Congress has stitched up an alliance with NCP for the first time for the civic body polls.
BMC, the country`s richest civic body with a budget of over Rs 20,000 crore, more than that of many states, has 227 seats. While Sena chief Bal Thackeray, son Uddhav and grandson Aditya voted in Bandra, MNS chief Raj Thackeray cast his vote in central Dadar area of Mumbai.
In Nagpur, BJP president Nitin Gadkari rode a scooter to the polling booth to cast his vote. In Pune, sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi cast his vote along with wife Meera. Across the ten cities, 9,534 candidates are in the fray for 1,244 seats. In Mumbai, 2,232 candidates are in the fray.
While Sena-BJP alliance controls BMC, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik and Nagpur, Congress-NCP combine is in power in Pune and Solapur. Amravati civic body is held by the Congress and Pimpri-Chinchwad by NCP.
The 73-member Akola municipal corporation was under Congress-NCP rule, but was dissolved by the state government last year over financial irregularities. Counting of votes in 27 zilla parishads, where polling was held on February 7, will also take place today.
Around 54 per cent of about 2.02 crore electorate today exercised their franchise for polls in 10 municipal corporations of Maharashtra, including the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). In Mumbai, only 46 per cent of the 1.02 crore voters cast ballots, despite the state government declaring a public holiday today.
State Election Commissioner Neela Satyanarayan expressed concern about the low turn-out. In the last three civic polls, over half the electorate in Mumbai did not exercise their franchise, with the voting percentage ranging between 42 and 46 per cent. In 2007 polls, only 46 per cent had voted.
The voting percentages in other nine cities today were as follows: Thane (52 per cent), Ulhasnagar (43 per cent), Nashik (58 per cent), Pune (53 per cent), Pimpri-Chinchwad (56 per cent), Solapur (58 per cent), Akola (57 per cent), Nagpur (55 per cent) and Amravati (58 per cent).