Mumbai, 16 Jan

The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance has managed to extend its lead in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections as reported early trends show the BJP emerging as the single largest party with leads in 98 seats.

With the BJP-SS alliance leading in 128 seats, Shiv Sena is leading in 30.

Meanwhile the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS-NCP(SP) alliance seems tohave halted in its tracks for now with leads in only 68 wards. While the UBT leads in the alliance with 59 seats, MNS has managed to stay ahead in 9, whereas NCP SP has not managed to secure a lead in any of the seats.

Similarly, the NCP led by Ajit Pawar has also not managed to score a seat, sitting at a zero lead across the 227 wards in Mumbai.

The Congress has managed to gain a lead on 14 seats, However, the party's alliance partner for the local polls, the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi, has not managed to open its account in the BMC till now.

Meanwhile, across the 28 other municipal corporations theBJP has put up a strong show once again as reported trends showed the party leading in Nagpur, Pune, Thane, Nashik, Shambhajinagar Municipal Corporations.

According to preliminary trends, the BJP has is leading in 113 seats out of the 151 in Nagpur. Congress leads in only 30.

In Pune, the BJP leads in 90 seats, while the NCP-NCP combine failed to materialise much support as the alliance only led in 20 seats. Meanwhile the Congress-UBT alliance in Pune had a combined tally of only 10 seats.

In the 131 wards of Thane, BJP is continuing to be the single largest party by leading in 29 seats, whereas the Ajit Pawar NCP only won 4 seats. The UBT-MNS-NCP(SP) alliance combined had a tally of 5 seats.

In the Jalgaon, three Kolhe family members; Lalit Kolhe, Sindhutai Kolhe and Piyush Lalit Kolhe shared an emotional moment in Jalgaon after each of them secured a win the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation (JMC) on Friday.

The elections for Mumbai's Municipal Corporation were conducted after a gap of eight years, marking a significant civic exercise for Mumbai. The previous BMC elections were held in 2017, while the term of the last elected mayor, Kishori Pednekar, ended in March 2022. With the completion of the polls, Mumbai is set to get a new mayor after nearly four years. (ANI)