Nagpur, 13 Jan

(HS): The campaigning for elections in Maharashtra’s 29 municipal corporations

will end at 5.30 pm on Tuesday. The polling in all the civic body areas will be

held on January 15 and the counting of votes will be held on January 16.

Bharatiya Janata

Party-led alliance with Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and Nationalist Congress

Party (Ajit Pawar) and others is confident of winning elections in all the

municipal corporations.

In Nagpur Union

Minister Nitin Gadkari and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have been organised

on Tuesday. The major concentration is in North Nagpur which has a large number

of scheduled caste voters. Former Minister and Congress leader Dr Nitin Raut

gets elected from this Assembly constituency. BJP is ruling the Nagpur

Municipal Corporation for the last several years. Fadnavis himself was Mayor of

the city. Ex-MLCs Anil Sole and MLC Sandeep Joshi also rose to become legislators

after holding the key position as Mayor of Nagpur.

Hectic

campaigning across Maharashtra was held on Sunday, the last weekend before the

polling.

All eyes are on

elections of Bombay Municipal Corporation, which had a stronghold of Shiv Sena

before fraction. BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) and striving oust Uddhav Balasaheb

Thackeray and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena from Mumbai.

NCP Ajit Pawar

and Sharad Pawar group have joined hands in Pune to control BJP’s dominance in

the state. Thane Municipal Corporation, which was under controversy over large

number of unopposed elected candidates, is home districts of Deputy Chief

Minister Eknath Shinde. Here also BJP and Shiv Sena are contesting together.

Majority of the unopposed candidates are from BJP, which has become a cause of

concern for Shinde.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar