Mumbai voted today to elect representatives to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Voting was held for a total of 29 corporations across the state of Maharashtra. The 227-member strong BMC is India's richest civic body, whose annual budget surpasses Rs 74,000 crores, NDTV reported.
Nearly 1,700 candidates fought in the BMC elections, which were held following a four-year delay.
What do exit polls predict?
Exit polls have predicted that the BJP-led Mahayuti will emerge victorious in the BMC polls. Axis My India predicted that the Mahayuti is poised to win 131-151 seats. The JVC exit poll gave the prediction that the saffron alliance would win 138 seats. Sakal has shown that the Mahayuti will be winning 119 seats.
Axis My India gave a detailed breakdown of their prediction. The poll firm predicted 131-151 seats for the Mahayuti, 58-68 seats for the Shiv Sena (UBT), MNS, and NCP(SCP) alliance, and 12-16 seats for the alliance comprising Congress, VBA, and RSP. They predicted 6-12 wins for others.
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Axis My India predicted a landslide 10 per cent gap in vote share between the Mahayuti and Shiv Sena (UBT) alliance. They have predicted that while the BJP-led alliance is poised to receive a 42 per cent vote share, while Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, and Sharad Pawar's alliance will fetch 32 per cent of votes.
They have also predicted that the BJP might be the largest party in terms of vote share, with 28 per cent, while Shiv Sena (UBT) might rank second, raking in 24 per cent of the votes.
Pretext to the polls
The estranged Thackeray cousins had come together after two decades to fight the BMC polls. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP had allied with Sharad Pawar's faction in Pune civic polls, and the party was not part of the Mahayuti in the BMC elections.
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The Congress, too, formed a separate alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and the RSP. Votes will be counted on Friday, January 16.
