MUMBAI, Jan 16: Breaking the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena, the BJP today emerged as the single largest party in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, and also triumphed in Pune, where it made mincemeat of the alliance of NCP factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar.
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The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is set to come to power in 25 of the 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, where elections were held on January 15, Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis said, addressing jubilant party workers in south Mumbai in the evening.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the voters over the emphatic victory of BJP and allies in the civic polls.
“Thank you Maharashtra! The dynamic people of the state bless the NDA’s agenda of pro-people good governance,” Modi posted on X.
The BJP-led alliance was set to surpass the 114-seat majority mark in the 227-member BMC, which is India’s richest civic body, whose budget for 2025-26 is a whopping Rs 74,427 crore.
Counting of votes was held on Friday, a day after the polling saw a 54.77 per cent turnout.
The State Election Commission is yet to release an official statement on all the results. An official said the final results may be announced late in the night.
Coupled with a decent performance by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, the BJP is now in the driver’s seat to govern the cash-rich Mumbai civic body.
The high-stakes battle for BMC saw the Thackeray cousins reunite after two decades, only to see their hopes dashed as the results announced so far indicated.
In Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation polls, the BJP is heading towards a massive victory, way ahead of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NCP (SP) alliance.
Fadnavis has emerged as the man of the moment, with the BJP under his leadership surpassing its previous high of 82 seats in the 2017 BMC elections.
The success of BJP’s ‘Mission Mumbai’ has now firmly established it as the key political force in the financial capital. (PTI)
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