Elections will be held in 10 municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including in Mumbai tomorrow where a triangular contest is on cards between the Congress-NCP combine, Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance and the Raj Thackeray-led MNS.
Elections are being held in Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur municipal corporations. The 10 civic bodies have an electorate of 2.02 crore and will elect 1,244 candidates.
Senior leaders like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan addressed a flurry of poll meetings to campaign for their respective parties for the February 16 elections, seen as mini assembly polls.
In the 227-seat Mumbai corporation, the election is a fiercely fought affair. It is a challenge for the Congress-NCP combine which aims to dethrone the Sena-BJP combine, at the helm of civic affairs for the last 16 years.
The polls will also prove credentials of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which threatens to endanger the Sena stronghold. Political analysts are describing the elections as a battle of survival for the Shiv Sena as the politically significant Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been its since 1996.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, an old friend of Thackeray, was quoted in a section of media as saying that the saffron party is on the decline and 86-year old Thackeray's son Uddhav, now Sena executive president, is a 'failure'.
