Analysis of Election Results of Ten Municipal Corporations of Maharashtra February 2017

Election Results of Ten Maharashtra Municipal Corporations – February 23, 2017

Name of the Municipal Corporation	Bharatiya Janata Party	Shiv Sena	Indian National Congress	Nationalist Congress Party	Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena	AIMIM	Others
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation	82	84	31	9	7	3	11
Thane M. C.	23	67	3	34	0	-	4
Pune M.C.	91	12	11	30	1	-	6
Nashik M.C.	66	35	6	6	5	-	4
Nagpur M.C.	101	3	28	1	0	-	6
Pimpri Chinchwad	78	9	0	35	1	-	5
Akola M.C.	48	8	13	5	0	-	6
Amravati M.C.	45	7	15	0	0	-	20
Solapur M.C.	49	21	14	3	0	8	7
Ulhasnagar M.C	32	25	1	4	0	-	16
The above figures are subject to change after	reviewing muncipal corporations final tally

 Results to the elections conducted on 21^st February 2017 in ten municipal corporation of Maharasthra were declared on 23^rd February 2017. Bharatiya Janata Party which is the ruling party at the Centre as well as the state has excelled in its performance in nearly 8 Municipal Corporations. Except Mumbai and Thane where Shiv Sena has emerged as party garnering majority seats, other corporations has BJP as front runner.

The BJP seems to have benefited from breaking up of their 25 year old alliance with Shiv Sena and emerged victorious in 8 Municipal Corporations out of ten. In Mumbai too BJP seats surged from 31 in 2012 to 82 while Shiv Sena showed marginal increase from 75 to 84. The Congress as well as Nationalist Congress Party were both decimated and so is the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.  The Congress could win only 31 seats against 52 seats in 2012 thus a loss of 21 seats so did MNS. MNS could win only 7 seats against 28 in 2012, thus a loss of 21 seats.  Presumably their is a change in voting pattern. Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) got 3 seats.

The BJP raced towards victory in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), pushing the ruling NCP to a poor second spot. The Shiv Sena, MNS and Congress faired poorly in the PMC polls.

In  Nashik Municipal Corporation too BJP bagged majority seats ie. 67 seats compared to 37 of Shiv Sena. It has pushed Mahrashtra Navnirman Sena in fifth position.

It was in the Nashik Municipal Corporation elections that MNS tasted its first success in 2012 Municipal polls. MNS won its first elections when it bagged 40 out of 122 seats in Nashik Municipal Corporation elections in 2012 and came to power. The MNS had managed to show impressive performance in Nashik after small victory of 13 seats in 2009 Maharashtra Assembly polls. This was the time when Raj Thackeray began to see himself as a kingmaker. However 2017 elections tell a different story. 30 corporators of MNS defected to either Shiv Sena or BJP thus reducing the strength of the party before municipal elections.

In Pimpri Chinchwad , Pune and Solapur which were earlier with NCP and Congress  too BJP seats soared. Thus pushing Congress to third position.

Nagpur Municipal Corporation too has BJP majority. Shiv Sena does not have a strong base in Nagpur. Congress has managed to get just 28 seats due to infighting between factions of Vilas Muttemwar, Nitin Raut, Anees Ahmad and Satish Chaturvedi.

Aggressive and sustained campaign by the Chief Minister – Shri Devendra Fadnavis has elevated BJP to number one position in eight out of these ten Municipal Corporations. Downfall of Congress is due to leadership vacuum in state as well as in the Corporations and factional infighting during electoral campaign.