Voting for ten municipal corporations tomorrow

Mumbai, Jan 31 (UNI) Voting for the ten municipal corporations, including Mumbai, will be be held tomorrow.

The ten corporations going to polls are Mumbai, Thane, Nasik, Ulhasnagar, Nagpur, Akola, Amravati, Solapur, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The outcome of the corporation elections are significant as it will reflect the mood of urban voters from Maharashtra.

The voting will start at 0730 hrs and will end at 1730 hrs.

Official sources said as many as 9,246 candidates in 1162 wards are in the fray in the 10 corporations and the total number of voters in these corporations stand at 1,57,90,182 people.

There will be 13,616 polling stations and 19,580 electronic voting machines will be kept ready. In all, 1,599 polling stations are considered as sensitive.

All eyes are set on the prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as the metropolis is considered as the financial capital of the country and its annual budget stands at Rs 12,000 crore.

In Mumbai, there are 227 wards and 2,376 candidates are contesting in all. Of the 6,951 polling stations, 343 are sensitive.

In Mumbai the voter's strength is 83,88,460.

While Shiv Sena -BJP has an alliance in all the 10 municipal corporations, Congress and NCP could work out their alliance in none of the corporations barring Akola.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed a public meeting on December 23. However, Congress leaders maintained the public meeting was not a campaign meeting. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President Prabha Rau and Mumbai Regional Congress Committee President Gurudas Kamat also campaigned for the party.

NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar himself undertook campaigning addressing public meetings and even participating in road shows and was assisted by minister of state for civil aviation Praful Patel, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, State NCP chief Arun Gujarathi and others.

Shiv Sena-BJP alliance mainly banked on the two public meetings addressed by Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray in Mumbai and Thane.

Apart from this, Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray, Manohar Joshi, Diwakar Raote also participated in the campaign.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi shared dais with Shiv Sena Chief to address the public meting here apart from a galaxy of leaders including Venkaiah Naidu, film star turned politicians Hema Malini, Dara Singh, Shatrughna Sinha.

Out of ten municipal corporations, Pune, Nagpur, Amravati and Solapur are currently ruled by Congress while Shiv Sena-BJP alliance is controlling Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Akola. The NCP is ruling in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Ulhasnagar.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), an outfit led by Raj Thackeray, estranged nephew of Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray also entered in the fray and is contesting most of the seats in Mumbai, Thane and Nasik.

The third force comprising Republican Party of India (RPI) and Samajwadi Party has entered the fray too.

UNI