Mumbai, set a record for voter turnout for this Municipal elections, delivering a 25-year-high of 55%. The Congress which talked about currency crisis and common man is no where in Mumbai.
The election for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC) is also being viewed as a mid-term report card on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who led the campaign for the BJP. Thackeray had said that he would decide after this result on whether to remain partnered with the BJP in the coalition government that runs Maharashtra.
The Congress was unable to cut short its trend of losing important elections – it downsized its share considerably in the municipal corporation that runs Mumbai, accruing 28 seats at 1:30 pm, down from 52. Sanjay Nirupam, the head of the party in Mumbai, offered to resign, accepting responsibility for the poor results.
The corporation, with an annual budget of 37,000 crores, has 227 seats. It has been run for four successive terms (20 years) by the Shiv Sena and the BJP. but this time, in a breakup delivered by the allies’ increasing disagreements, the parties contested the corporation separately.
The Sena, headed by Uddhav Thackeray, was considerably ahead with 94 of 227 seats, though the BJP more than doubled its performance in the last election 61 of 227 seats at compared to 32 in the last election.
Milind Deora, a former parliamentarian from Mumbai from the Congress, tweeted an admission of defeat. The party’s effort for the election was undermined by a fight between Mr Nirpuam and senior leader Gurudas Kamat, who pulled out of the campaign because his inputs, including for the selection of candidates, were reportedly being ignored.
This indicates that the people are slowly going away from the Congress party in all the elections.
While the BJP has doubled its tally, the Congress is reduced to half number of seats when compared to the last election. This is a fair indication as to who the Congress would fare in the next election. The tie up with SP will help the Congress but not Akhilesh. The BSP might also do well as Maywati is pinning hope on the muslims and has given majority of seasts to them.
