By ME Bureau
The Shiv Sena and BJP alliance swept the Aurangabad municipal corporation elections winning 58 out of the total 113 seats. Masjil-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) sprung a surprise by emerging as the second largest party winning 23 seats ahead of the Congress and the NCP.
In Aurangabad, the Congress won only 10 seats, NCP 3 seats and others managed 19 seats. The MIM which lost its deposit in the Bandra (East) bypolls recently, made an impressive come back in the Aurangabad local bodies elections. The election outcome has got the Congress and NCP worried as it fears the minorities have shifted their preference to MIM in Auranagabad. In the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) polls, out of the total 111 seats, NCP bagged 53 and is likely to retain power unless Congress and others back Sena-BJP alliance which secured 43 seats.
NCP has secured 53, Sena 37, BJP 6 and others 5 seats in the Navi Mumbai polls. The state NCP chief said that the Shiv Sena-BJP combine was in power for 25 years in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporations. Although NCP has taken the lead in Navi Mumbai, its dominance in the corporation has taken a big beating with the Shiv Sena and BJP alliance giving it a close fight. Within the alliance, it showed that Sena had the upper hand over BJP with the saffron party managing just five seats under the leadership of Manda Mhatre (MLA), who was brought to the party to challenge the stronghold of Naik in Navi Mumbai. In the 2014 assembly elections, Mhatre has defeated Ganesh Naik from Belapur constituency.
The outcome in other civic bodies namely Ambarnath and Belapur in the outskirts ofMumbai also went in Shiv Sena and BJP’s favour. In Badlapur out of the total 47 seats, Shiv Sena won 15 seats, BJP 18 seats, Congress and NCP failed to win any seats.
In Ambernath out of total 57 seats the Sehiv Sena won 13, BJP six, Congress 8 and NCP 3 seats and others won five.
