Maharashtra civic polls: Voting for Panvel, Bhiwandi, Malegaon begins, results on Friday | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Maharashtra civic polls: Voting for Panvel, Bhiwandi, Malegaon begins, results on Friday

Hindustan Times | BySurendra P Gangan, Mumbai
May 24, 2017 08:52 AM IST

Mumbai city news: BJP is eyeing the newly formed Panvel municipal corporation, while the Congress hopes to do better in Bhiwandi and Malegaon

The voting for three municipal corporations – Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon -- started today. The results of the elections will be declared on May 26.

Voting officials oversee last-minute preparations before the elections at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.(Bachchan Kumar)
Voting officials oversee last-minute preparations before the elections at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.(Bachchan Kumar)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is eyeing the newly formed Panvel municipal corporation, while the Congress and other opposition parties are hoping to do better in the other two civic bodies, where minority voters will exercise their franchise in large numbers.

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Close to 12.96 lakh voters in the three municipal corporations are expected to vote for 1,251 candidates fielded in 252 seats.

Panvel civic body, which covers the area from Kharghar to Panvel, including a few villages on the outskirts of Panvel city, will see a fight between the BJP and the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), which has forged an alliance with the Congress and the NCP. The Shiv Sena, after its talks with the BJP crashed, has decided to fight independently but will have a ‘friendly fight’ with the PWP to cut the BJP to size.

“BJP is strong in urban areas such as Kharghar, Kamothe and Khandeshwar, where cosmopolitan voters reside in large numbers. The rural parts support the PWP. The party has not left any stone unturned. We are hoping to emerge as the single largest party,” said a BJP leader.

In Malegaon, in Nashik district in north Maharashtra, more than 60 of 84 wards dominated by Muslim voters. The BJP has fielded 29 Muslim candidates, of which 16 are women, with the hope of winning a few seats from these pockets, which have never voted for the party in the past.

“We have done a lot of work, be it housing schemes, gas connections, toilets, or power looms (which had a package of Rs 20, 000 crore put into it). The voters are fed up with the inefficient rule of the Congress, Janata Dal and local fronts for years. We have a strong chance of bagging seats,” said Jamal Siddique, state head of the minority cell of the BJP.

The party has no sitting corporator in the civic body and has been eyeing most of the 20 seats in the Hindu dominated areas of the city. Teesra Mahaj, the second largest party in the 2012 civic polls, merged with the NCP while few of its corporators defected to the AIMIM. The NCP has joined hands with the local unit of the Janata Dal, which has had a stronghold for years and was once led by late Nihal Ahmed, an influential local leader. The alliance and the Congress has fair chances of emerging with the highest number of seats.

In Bhiwandi, too, more than 40% of the voters are Muslims and have traditionally voted for the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP). The Shiv Sena has always succeeded in polarising non-Muslim voters, helping it to remain in second position. The Congress is hoping that Muslim voters choose it over the SP and the AIMIM. Leaders of the Congress, which is in power with the support of the Shiv Sena, said that they would win the highest number of seats though it was not clear if they would win power on their own.

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Battle for Panvel: Shiv Sena chief, CM hold rallies in Navi Mumbai before May 24 civic poll

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