Maharashtra queues up to vote in hotly contested civic polls

Polling for the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and 9 other civic bodies across Maharashtra got underway this morning with estranged allies BJP and Shiv Sena at the forefront of this battle of might (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

A voter shows-off her marker fingure marked for after casting her vote. A total of 3.77 crore voters will determine the fate of 17,331 candidates for 3210 seats up for grabs in 10 municipal corporations across Maharashtra, 11 zilla parishads and 118 panchayat samitis in the second phase of polls being seen as "mini general elections." (Express Photo) (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Q for voting during Mumbai BMC Polls Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty 21-02-17, Mumbai

BJP had outperformed the Shiv Sena in the 2014 Assembly polls in Mumbai, the traditional Gujarati votebank had emerged as the former’s loudest supporter. But in the Gujarati belts of Dahisar, Borivli, Kandivli, Ghatkopar and Vidyavihar on Tuesday, the same voter segment didn’t appear as expressive. While some political pundits attributed this the failure of the establishment to form a connect with the masses, some voters stated that they felt disenchanted over demonetisation.

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) also under went to polls on Tuesday to decide whether the National Congress Party (NCP) will continue to be at the helm, or the BJP — already in power at the Centre and state — will take charge of the civic body too. These polls are crucial for NCP as the civic bodies — PMC and neighbouring PCMC — are in the home district of party chief Sharad Pawar.

NCP Chief Sharad Pawar, stands in the queue to cast his vote. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has on several occassions dared Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to quit the BJP-led government in the state and said that his party would not help the BJP to continue in power.

Sharad Pawar seen here cast his vote at a polling stating. Pune has eight municipal corporations in Maharashtra are contesting in polls today. Almost 6,000 candidates will fight for the corporations in Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur. Maharashtra was witness to the fallout between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, however, both the parties are still expected to make gains and improve their overall tally this time.

Mumbai came out in large numbers to cast their votes in BMC polls and Bollywood celebs were nor exception. While a lot of celebs including Ranveer Singh, John Abraham, Shraddha Kapoor and Anushka Sharma have cast their votes, Varun Dhawan failed to do so because the voter list did not have his name.