The counting of votes in 227 municipal wards in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are underway. Going by the latest trends, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena is emerging as the largest party since it has already won 59 seats till now and is leading on 34 seats, while BJP has so far won 35 seats and is leading in 40 seats.
This is for the first time in two decades that Shiv Sena and BJP fought the BMC polls separately. This defeat could be a blow for chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who revived the alliance alleging corruption and financial irregularities against the Shiv Sena. Soon after the trends declared Shiv Sena the winner, supporters began celebrating the victory outside party head office in Mumbai.
Congress is at the third position after winning 17 wards and leading in 5 others, followed by Nationalist Congress Party with 4. Meanwhile, claiming the responsibility for Congress’ poor show, Sanjay Nirupam offered his resignation from the post of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chairman.
On February 21, Mumbai recorded its highest-ever voter turnout for a municipal election after it registered 55.28 per cent turnout after nearly 5 million voters exercised their franchise.
The counting of ballot has also been taken up simultaneously in nine other major civic bodies, 26 zila parishads and 283 panchayat samitis across Maharashtra, which voted in the two-phase elections on February 16 and February 21.
Here the updates so far:
1: 50 PM: Shiv Sena’s Haji Mohammed Halim Khan wins from Ward no: 96
1: 26 PM: Clashes break out between Shiv Sena-BJP supporters
1: 22 PM: Sanjay Nirupam offers resignation from the post of Mumbai Regional Congress Committee chairman post.
1: 10 PM: Shiv Sena’s Mahesh Sawant is leading in Mumbai’s ward no 194
12: 59 PM: INC candidate Rajendra Narwankar, retired BMC assistant Engineer, wins from ward no 216.
12: 53 PM: MNS candidate Archana Bhalerao won BMC election from ward no 126.
12:47 PM: Vinod Shelar brother of BJP’s Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar lost from ward number 51.
12:44 PM: BJP Andheri West Candidates Sudha Singh, Renu Hansraj & Sunita Mehta wins.
12:39 PM: Shiv Sena wins 4 seats, leading in 84 others, BJP wins 2, Congress, NCP win 1 each.
12: 36 PM: Richest candidate in Mumbai Parag Shah defeats Pravin Chheda
Richest candidate in #Mumbai Parag Shah defeats Pravin Chhedahttps://t.co/lRFls5Gmbl@chheda_pravin @bjpparagshah
— Election Station (@electionstation) February 23, 2017
12: 34 PM: Asaduddin Owasi’s AIMIM opens its account in Mumbai. Ansari wins Ward 223
12: 30 PM: BJP MP Kirit Somaiya’s son Neil wins from ward number 108.
12: 22 PM: Shiv Sena wins 4 seats, BJP Congress, NCP win 1 seat each in BMC.
12: 15 PM: BJP opens account, wins 1 seat in BMC
12: 13 PM: Shiv Sena’s Sindhu Masurkar wins from ward no 203. She defeated Tejaswini Ambole from BJP
12: 05 PM: Shiv Sena won 3 seats in BMC, leading on 77
12: 01 PM: MNS’ Dutta Naravanakara in now leading in Mumbai
BJP leads big in Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, almost doubles its tally in Mumbai [based on early trends].. This will have big impact on Eastern UP!
— Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) February 23, 2017
11: 59 AM: Shiv Sena leading on 75 wards, BJP on 40 wards, Congress on 11 wards, MNS on 6 wards, NCP on 4 wards and others on 2
11: 53 AM: Confident Shiv Sena starts celebrating, leading in 75 seats.
Shiv Sena workers celebrating outside party office (PIC ANI)
11: 46 AM: Shiv Sena’s Rajul Patel leading in Mumbai
11: 42 AM: Shiv Sena leading on 67 wards, BJP on 38 wards, Congress on 13 wards, MNS on 6 wards, NCP on 5 wards and others on 3 wards.
11: 40 AM: Shiv Sena leading on 57 wards, BJP on 34 wards, Congress on 8 wards, MNS on 5 wards, NCP on 4 wards and others on 1 ward.
11: 30 AM: Shiv Sena, lead by Uddhav Thackeray, is leading in 59 seats.
11: 22 AM: Shiv Sena leading in 55 wards, BJP 32, Congress 10, MNS 5 and others in 2
11: 15 AM: Uddhav Thackeray-led party gains momentum is now leading on 44 wards. BJP in 28, Congress far behind in 10.
Rise of Shiv Sena in #BMCPolls is a clear indication for BJP that in Mumbai SS are the Elder Brother… @AUThackeray
— SUDHIR MISHRA (@SHAHSUDH) February 23, 2017
11: 08 AM: Shiv Sena emerging party number one, leading in 40 wards, BJP in 26
11: 06 AM: SS leading on 37 wards, BJP on 25 wards, Congress on 6 wards, MNS on 4 wards and NCP on 2 wards.
11: 02 AM: It will be a hung BMC if BJP doesn’t get the majority, tweets a Mumbaikar.
10: 57 AM: Here comes the MNS, the Raj Thackeray-led party is now leading in 3 wards. NCP too leading in 2. Shiv Sena is leading the charts with 34 leads.
10: 54 AM: Uddhav Thackeray-led party is leading in 29 wards, BJP in 20 and Congress is far behind.
Once upon a time there was a party named @INCIndia in Maharashtra #BMCPolls
— Sumanth (@MMSumanth) February 23, 2017
10: 50 AM: Shiv Sena gaining leads,Uddhav Thackeray-led party is leading in 18 seats, BJP in 12, Congress in 5, Others are in 2.
10: 45 AM: Shiv Sena leading in 15 seats
10: 38 AM: 19 leads from BMC polls –8 to BJP, 9 to Shivsena and 2 to Congress
10: 35 AM: Congress leading from one ward, Shiv Sena in 7 and BJP in 3
#BMCPolls2017: Counting underway; Shiv Sena is leading on 10 wards, BJP on 9 wards, Congress on 3 wards.
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 23, 2017
10: 34 AM: Positive about our winning; Both brothers (Raj & Uddhav Thackeray) can’t come together: Manohar Joshi, Senior Shiv Sena leader
10: 32 AM: Shiv Sena leading on 6 wards, while BJP in 2.
10: 26 AM: Counting underway in Mumbai; Shiv Sena takes early lead on ward no 200 & 202, while BJP leads on ward no. 218.
Seeing the early trends in #BMCPolls , Congress continues to loose its charm. It is the right time to think on a new face @OfficeOfRG
— Prejit Chandran. (@prejitchandran) February 23, 2017
10: 21 AM: Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leading from one seat too
10: 20 AM: In the BMC elections 2017, counting of postal votes end.
10: 18 AM: Here is the first update, BJP is leading in one seat!
10: 10 AM: The battle is between Shiv Sena and BJP. Interesting to see will they form an alliance?
10: 06 AM: Counting of votes underway. About 55 percent voted in BMC polls this year.
10: 04 AM: Only those who have voted have the right to crib about bad roads, traffic, water shortage, etc, a Mumbaikar share his thought via tweet.
10: 00 AM: And, its 10 on the clock, the counting of votes for the BMC civic body polls begin.
#FLASH Counting of votes for 227 wards of BMC begins #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/aZamRcnaYa
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 23, 2017
9: 58 AM: Major traffic diversions in Mumbai due to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls counting, tweets a Mumbaikar.
9: 54 AM: Just ahead of the counting, here is the quick flashback about what happened in last elections: During the 2012 BMC elections in the 227-member body, the Shiv Sena won 75 seats, the BJP won 31, the Congress 52, NCP 13, MNS won 28 seats while independents and other smaller parties won 28 seats.
9: 52 AM: We are just about 8 minutes away from counting of votes to begin. It will start at 10 am sharp.
9: 49 AM: BMC elections result is the most keenly awaited for the allies-turned-rivals, Shiv Sena and BJP.
9: 45 AM: On the eve of the counting of votes for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded that repolling be held in the areas where a large number of people, including Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan, could not exercise their franchise as their names did not figure in the voters’ list.
