BMC election results 2017: Shiv Sena, BJP neck and neck; Congress, MNS decimated

BMC election 2017: The BJP and the Sena decided to fight the elections, considered the semi-final to the Assembly polls in 2019, separately after seat-sharing talks broke down.

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Shiv Sena activists celebrate over the results of BMC Election results in front of Sena Bhavan in Mumbai on Thursday (PTI Photo by Santosh Hirlekar)

It looks like former allies Shiv Sena and the BJP have to be content with sharing control of the cash-rich Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation even though they campaigned and fought separately. Though both parties wanted to get a clean majority in the corporation, as per trends at 4:45 pm, the Shiv Sena was winning in 84 wards and the BJP in 81 wards. The half-way mark in the 227-member corporation is 114 and both parties are nowhere close to it. In achieving this conundrum, the BJP and the Sena have ensured the washout of the Congress, NCP and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the city. While the Congress has come down from their 2012 tally of 52 seats to 31 seats, the NCP and the MNS were able to win just nine and seven seats respectively.

WATCH| BMC Elections 2017: Shiv Sena Wins 84 Seats, BJP Closes Gap With 81 Seats

It is unclear at the moment whether the BJP and the Sena will once again go for an alliance in the BMC or resort to stitching alliances with smaller parties like the Congress, NCP and the MNS. The Sena, being the single-largest party, can even go for an alliance with the Congress.

“We are not considering an alliance with BJP. Final call on this will be taken by the party chief Uddhavji,” said senior Sena leader Manohar Joshi.

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The BJP and the Sena decided to fight the elections, considered the semi-final to the Assembly polls in 2019, separately after seat-sharing talks broke down. The BJP, being the senior partner in the state government, wanted equal share of the seats to contest which was not acceptable to the Sena. Both parties have shared power in the BMC over the last two decades.

In other municipal corporations across Maharashtra, the Sena will take firm control of the corporation in Thane while the BJP made rapid inroads into NCP bastions like Pimpri-Chinchwad. The BJP also has a clear lead over its opponents in Nashik, Pune and Nagpur corporations.

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