About 90 per cent of voting was seen at seven civic bodies Mumbai, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Dhule, Buldana and Akola for the polls of the Legislative Council. The polling was conducted for seven seats on Sunday for which counting will be done on December 30. Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Girish Vyas from Nagpur seat was elected unopposed to the Legislative Council, as the Opposition did not field a candidate.
For two seats in Mumbai, three candidates were in fray and 201 out of 230 corporators of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cast their votes. MNS’ 29 corporators remained abstained from voting. Congress Bhai Jagtap, Shiv Sena’s Ramdas Kadam and NCP member Prasad Lad contested two seats. Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena and BJP were in alliance for the polls. However, NCP fielded Lad against Congress-NCP’s official candidate Bhai Jagtap and later disowned him. Congress-NCP also issued a whip to vote only to the Congress candidate to its corporators. Despite this, there were reports that a few Congress corporators cross-voted. However, no confirmation came from the authorities.
In Ahmednagar, four candidates were in the race for one seat and 429 corporators cast their vote. In Dhule-Nandurbar, two candidates contested for one seat and 392 have voted. In Solapur two candidates contested for one seat and 396 corporators voted. In Kolhapur two candidates contested for one seat and voting was 100 per cent. For one seat in Akola, two candidates contested and 786 corporators voted. This election is prestigious for the BJP, which needs to increase its strength in the Upper House of the legislature. The BJP at present has only 12 members in the 78-member House. The NCP dominates the Upper House with 28 members.
