Election results for 106 semi-urban local bodies - nagar panchayats, or government bodies for areas with a small population - in Maharashtra are being declared on Wednesday.
Overall trends indicate Sharad Pawar's NCP will form the panchayat in 25 areas, with the BJP in 24, the Congress in 18 and the Shiv Sena in 14.
The NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), the Congress and the Shiv Sena are part of Maharashtra's ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi.
They are contesting jointly in some areas and independently in others, but combined they look set to defeat the BJP by a huge margin - winning control of over half of the panchayats.
The BJP has emerged with the most seats across, having won 416 of 1,802 seats.
The BJP's state unit chief, Chandrakant Patil, claimed the party was therefore the single-largest political force in the state. Despite being out of power for nearly 26 months, the BJP had been successful, and this shows we can deliver good results without any government support, he said.
The NCP has won 378 seats, the Sena 301 and the Congress 297, meaning that combined the Maha Vikas Aghadi - with 976 seats - has again defeated the BJP by a massive margin.
The coalition has won 57 semi-urban local bodies while the BJP has won 24.
Last month the Supreme Court was approached by the Maharashtra government seeking a recall of the court's December 15 order that stayed 27 per cent reservation for OBC in local body elections.
The Supreme Court had directed the State Election Commission to revert the 27 per cent reservation for OBC back to 'general category'.
In March 2020 the court had said reservation in favour of OBCs in local bodies in Maharashtra cannot exceed a total of 50 per cent of all seats reserved for Scheduled Castes, Tribes and OBCs.
A nagar panchayat is a form of urban local self-government established in towns that are not classified as either 'urban' or 'rural', and not have a functional municipality. They are composed of a certain number of Councillors which can be changed by the state government via notification.
With input from PTI
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