Nagpur, 15 Jan

(HS): The voting for 2869 seats in 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra started

at 7.30 am on Thursday. The counting of votes will be held on January 16. A

total of 3,48,78,017 voters will decide of the 15,931 candidates in the fray.

Major attention

in Maharashtra is Mumbai’s elections, where two Thackeray brothers Uddhav and Raj

have come together after 19 years. They have been relying on Shiv Sena’s hold

over Mumbai for many years. After fraction of Shiv Sena the Uddhav Thackeray’s

Shiv Sena has been facing difficulties in almost all the fields, as most of the

Shiv Sena leaders have gone with Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde. Bharatiya

Janata Party is contesting in alliance with Shiv Sena (Shinde) and the alliance

is confident of capturing Mumbai.

The other

municipal corporations of major attraction are Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad where

Nationalist Congress Party’s two factions led by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar

have joined hands to fight against Bharatiya Janata Party. In the state NCP

(Ajit Pawar) is in alliance with BJP and Shiv Sena.

Nagpur Municipal

Corporation is the home pitch of the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Both the powerful leaders are

confident of securing a majority.

Nashik

experienced discontent of workers for failure to secure party tickets. Internal

differences in BJP was publicly vended by the workers. Many of them either

shifted to other parties or have filed nominations as independent candidates.

Chhatrapati

Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation was ruled by Shiv Sena for many years

before the party’s fraction. BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde). UBT Sena and MIM

are making all efforts without any alliance.

In Kalyan-Dombiwali

and Navi Mumbai is likely to experience tough contest between BJP and Shiv

candidates. Shiv Sena appears to have a stronghold over Navi Mumbai, while

prestige of BJP minister Ganesh Naik and Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Chavan is at the

stake.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Ajay Vasant Mardikar