MUMBAI, 3 February 2007 — The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance scored major victories yesterday in Maharashtra civic elections retaining power in the Mumbai municipal corporation and taking control of two other civic bodies, leaving their opponents, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), badly bruised.
Tens of thousands of Shiv Sena and BJP supporters took to the streets across Maharashtra celebrating wildly as officials declared the two parties winners in Mumbai, neigboring Thane and in Nagpur, the second state capital where they wrested control of the municipal corporation from the Congress.
The all-important Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has an annual budget of Rs.120 billion, and gives ruling political parties tremendous clout in India’s financial and movie capital.
The BJP and Shiv Sena won 112 seats in the 227-member BMC, India’s richest municipal body, winning a second term in office despite the sorry state of civic affairs in the city.
The two parties, however, lost to the Congress-NCP combine in Akola and were headed to losing control of the Nashik municipal corporation. Elections to the municipal corporations took place Thursday.
“We thank the people of Maharashtra for voting for us,” a beaming Manohar Joshi of Shiv Sena, a former Lok Sabha speaker, declared in Mumbai as the party faithful waved saffron flags and danced outside the residence of party boss and the still charismatic Bal Thackeray.
For Thackeray, it was a personal victory of sorts that came after a grueling campaign. He was determined to give the Shiv Sena a much-needed win following the disaster of the 2004 parliamentary elections, more so to cut to size his estranged nephew Raj Thackeray and his newly formed Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena (MNS).
Besides Akola, the Congress and NCP cruised toward power in the municipal bodies of Amravati and Nashik, where they would need Raj Thackeray’s support to take power. The NCP won a clear majority in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The Congress and NCP were ahead of others in Solapur amid a hung house.
In Pune, statistics favor the Congress and NCP, with 35 and 42 seats respectively, as against the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance total of 45 in the 146-seat house. But NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar ruled out any post-poll alliance with the Congress.
The Shiv Sena and BJP also finished on top in the 75-member Ulhasnagar civic body but would need the backing of independents to rule the city.
After Raj Thackeray’s MNS won 12 seats in Nashik, eight in Pune, six in Mumbai and two in Amravati, it was clear the young man had emerged as a new force despite walking out of the shadow of Bal Thackeray.
“We have carved a good niche for ourselves in our first ever election,” he told reporters. The Bharatiya Republican Party-Bahujan Maha Sangh (BRP-BMS) led by Prakash Ambedkar won 10 seats.
