Despite heavy campaigning, the downpour on Sunday rained on all attempts to increase the voting percentage in this year's Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC) election
Representational picture
Despite heavy campaigning, the downpour on Sunday rained on all attempts to increase the voting percentage in this year's Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC) election. The voter turnout was registered at 46.93 per cent on Sunday, slightly lower than 47 per cent in 2012. According to the state election commission, counting of the votes will begin at 10 am today.
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Congress has a winner
There are 509 candidates in the fray, including party candidates and independents. Voting was conducted for 94 seats out of 95 seats for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The one remaining seat went uncontested to the Congress candidate, as all other candidates were declared ineligible due to errors in their nomination forms.
Voting for the 24 wards started at 7.30 am and ended at 5.30 pm. There were 774 poling centres across the city, at which 2,78,473 voters (out of 5,93,336) cast their votes.
In 2012, BJP had become single largest party after winning 29 seats. Initially, Congress and NCP had formed their government with alliance, however, after two-and-half years, Sena and BJP formed alliance and came into power.
It's Sena or BJP
This year, BJP's election campaign was led by local MLA Narendra Mehta. BJP is contesting on 90 seats, while their partner RPI has fielded three candidates. Sena's star campaigner was Thane MLA Pratap Sarnaik and former NCP MLA Gilbert Mendonca, who joined Sena in June. Sena has 93 candidates and while Congress has given tickets to 75 candidates in this election.
Political observers anticipate that Sena and BJP have the best odds of reaching majority. To claim majority, a party or alliance should have a minimum of 48 seats out of 95 seats. Meanwhile, both BJP and Sena are claiming that they will get the majority. The day before the election, BJP MLA Narendra Mehta had claimed that party could easily win 60-65 seats. Citing the development agenda for the city, Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik had also claimed that Sena will get at least 45-55 seats in the election.
94
No. of seats for which polls were conducted
48
No. of seats required to make majority
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