With the counting of votes in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on, early trends point to a lead by the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena Mahayuti alliance in around 75 wards as of 11 am, based on preliminary data.
The data shows BJP leads in 49 seats, and the Shiv Sena leads in 26, while Shiv Sena (UBT) is reported to be leading in 40 seats. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray, is currently leading in 8 seats. The Congress has 7 leads from the initial count, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction has 1 lead.
Meanwhile, official trends from the BMC’s electoral offices for the 227 BMC seats show the Bharatiya Janata Party leading in 9 wards, followed by Shiv Sena with 3 leads, Shiv Sena (UBT) with leads in 4 wards and the AIMIM with leads in two wards.
The BMC polls on Thursday recorded a voter turnout of only 52.94 per cent, according to the data released by the State Election Commissioner (SEC) today.
Also Read: Maha civic polls: Counting of votes begins; all eyes on Mumbai
Out of the total 1,03,44,315 voters in the electoral roll, a total of 54,76,043 exercised their right to vote. Amongst them, around 3.7 lakh men exercised their franchise compared to women. There were also 251 transgender electors who cast their votes.
The elections, which were conducted on Thursday after a gap of eight years, were marred by allegations by the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance, and subsequently refuted by the SEC.
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.
Additionally, 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.
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