NEW DELHI, Jan 2: Before even one vote has been cast in the long-overdue municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra, the Mahayuti alliance partners have secured 68 seats uncontested on the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Friday.
Of the total number of seats won unopposed, the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition has won 66 wards and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) two. Friday was the last day for the withdrawal of nomination forms and several candidates of other parties and alliances withdrew from contest paving the way for the 68 candidates to win unopposed.
The highest number of winners is from the crucial Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), where 21 Mahayuti candidates have been elected unopposed, 15 from the BJP and six from the Shiv Sena.
Jalgaon in North Maharashtra, which has been a fertile political ground for both the BJP and the Shiv Sena, has also contributed a dozen corporators to both parties, with each getting six wins. The trend continued in MMR’s Panvel too, where seven BJP candidates have won. The party also recorded six uncontested victories in Bhiwandi, which has been an NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction stronghold for a while.
Even with a visible rift with the BJP in Eknath Shinde’s home turf of Thane, the deputy chief minister’s Shiv Sena has managed to secure six victories. Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) staged a protest in the district, questioning the process and the approach of the ruling dispensation.
Smaller but politically important gains were also recorded elsewhere. In Dhule, three BJP candidates won uncontested, while the NCP won two seats and the BJP one in Ahilya Nagar. Political experts said the uncontested wins will come as a fresh boost for the ruling alliance in the state following its near clean sweep in the recently concluded municipal council elections. They will also free up the parties and allow them to focus on campaigning in other areas.
(Rohit Kumar)
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