Polling ends in ten municipal corporations

Mumbai, Feb 1 (UNI) Polling for the ten municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the metropolis, passed off peacefully today barring stray incidents of stone pelting and minor clashes in the city and in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Akola.

Tension prevailed in Lalbaug in central Mumbai, where the workers of Raj Thackeray-led MNS and Shiv Sena clashed. Timely intervention of police defused the situation. In Chembur, Congress and RPI were involved in a minor altercation, while in Ulhasnagar polling had to be stopped for about 30 minutes in a ward after an incident of booth capturing was reported. 15 persons were arrested in this connection, police said.

Incidents of minor clashes were reported from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial belt and Dehu road, near Pune. Police brought the situation under control.

In Akola, a Congress corporator Aliyar Khan, whose wife is contesting, was arrested along with his son for allegedly creating disturbances at a polling centre in the sensitive Bhandara area of the old city. Khan's supporters indulged in stone-pelting.

According to official sources, an estimated 45 per cent polling was registered in Mumbai.

Besides Mumbai, voting was held in Thane, Nasik, Ulhasnagar, Nagpur, Akola, Amravati, Solapur, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. it concluded at 1730 hours.

The counting will commence at 0800 hrs tomorrow.

The elections are significant as they will reflect the mood of urban voters in the state. There are 22 municipal coporations in the state out of which ten went to polls.

According to official sources, the ten corporations had a total of 1162 wards in which 9246 candidates are in fray. In all, there are 1,57,90,182 voters in these municipal corporations. There were 13,616 polling stations, where 19580 electronic voting machines were kept ready.

All eyes are on the metropolis, which has the richest corporation in the country whose annual budget stands at Rs 12,000 crore.

In Mumbai, there are 227 wards for which 2376 candidates are in fray. There were 6951 polling stations and the voter's strength is 83,88,460.

Shiv Sena-BJP has forged an alliance in all the ten municipal corporations, while Congress and NCP could not work out their alliance in any of the corporations barring Akola.

UNI