BMC Election Result 2017: At number 2, the BJP is ahead in 75 seats, crossing its previous best of 31.
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Shiv Sena's lead in the Mumbai civic polls has narrowed now and the BJP is a close number 2. The junior partner of the Shiv Sena in the city for the last two decades, the party contested separately this year and says it has given a fitting answer to its detractors with its performance. At about 4.30 pm, the BJP was leading in 81 seats, just three behind the Sena ahead in 84.
"It's a tight slap for those who said that the BJP will not get 40 seats in the BMC polls," said the BJP's Vinod Tawde, a minister in the BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government. The party's best so far was the 31 seats it had won as the Sena's partner last time. The Congress was number 2 that year, winning 52 seats. In this election it has been relegated to a faraway third.
Overall it is a good day yet for the BJP. While the Sena is leading in the civic bodies of Mumbai and suburb Thane, the BJP is ahead in Pune, Nashik, Amravati, Nagpur 48, 21, 18 and 50. Elections were held on Tuesday to 10 major municipalities in Maharashtra.
The election to the BMC, Asia's richest civic body with a budget of over 37,000 crore was this year pegged as a prestige battle between Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Chief Minister Fadnavis. After negotiations over seat allocation failed, Mr Thackeray said the alliance was over and that the Sena would withdraw from the Maharashtra and central governments that the BJP leads after the civic polls.
If he comes good on his threat and pulls out his 63 legislators, then the Devendra Fadnavis government will be short of a majority in Maharashtra; the BJP has 122 MLAs in the 288-member assembly and needs 144. The BJP is said to be eyeing Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party or NCP as a back-up option.
Mr Thackeray and Mr Fadnavis both led the battle for BMC from the front, engaging in bitter confrontations. The Shiv Sena has played the role more of opposition than ally in recent months attacking the Modi government on the notes ban and other issues.
The Shiv Sena has been struggling to come to terms with the BJP's new status in their relationship of senior partner in Maharashtra ever since its wins in the 2014 national election and the assembly election soon after.
The BJP has also done well in civic elections in the state gaining at the cost of not just the Sena but also the Congress and the NCP, in the first round of polls held a few months ago.