Mumbai:
Counting of votes for Mumbai's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and nine other civic bodies in Maharashtra began this morning. In very early trends, the Shiv Sena and NCP are neck and neck in the lead in Thane. In Pune, the NCP has suffered an early blow as its standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam has lost, though the party is ahead.
Elections to the 10 municipal corporations in Maharashtra were held yesterday. By the end of today, Mumbai will know who will rule the mega city for the next five years. The Shiv Sena-BJP combine, which has had control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, India's richest civic body, for 16 years now, is desperately trying to hold on to its last bastion. The Congress and the NCP, partners in government for a decade now, tied up for the first time to try and displace the saffron brigade. But all eyes are on Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, expected to emerge as spoiler or kingmaker, depending on who is telling the story.
This time around, the battle for the 227 seats in Mumbai is expected to be very close. The Congress and NCP have what is possibly their best chance in years to wrest control of the civic body from the Sena's hitherto unyielding grip. The Congress-NCP is counting on the MNS cutting into Sena votes. Also, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has personally overseen preparations this time, ironing out all chinks, and it is now being seen as a prestige battle for him.
Others pulled out all stops too - Uddhav and Bal Thackeray addressed rallies for the Shiv Sena; Raj Thackeray and his young son met voters for their party, the MNS.
The average voter turnout for the 10 municipal corporations - Mumbai, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur - was 54%. But in Mumbai, only 46% voters came out to vote - the city's rich and the middle class once again stayed away to many cries of "what a shame." The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has an annual budget of Rs. 20,000 crore and its policies have huge impact on daily life in India's financial capital. "It is very sad because there are a lot of people who don't come out to vote and they are not really contributing anything to society. So they have no right to even complain because you getting what you deserve," said Congress MP Priya Dutt. "I don't believe this is the way to present your cynicism - by not voting," she added.
In the last BMC election in 2007 too, the voter turnout was 46%. And in 2009, just months after the devastation of 26/11, less than 50% of voters participated in the general elections and the state Assembly elections.
In Pune, Mumbai partners Congress and NCP are fighting each other for control over the civic body. The city saw a better voter turnout at 53%. In Nagpur, which saw 55% of its voters come out to vote, the highlight yesterday was BJP President Nitin Gadkari arriving on a scooter to cast his vote.