Mumbai civic polls: 164 of 227 wards to be governed by first-timers

Following the results of the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Thursday, the city will have 164 of its 227 wards governed by first-timers.

Following the results of the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Thursday, the city will have 164 of its 227 wards governed by first-timers.

The election saw Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) involved in a neck-to-neck competition to take control of the country’s richest civic body. (Hindustan Times)

Experts attribute this to the redrawn ward boundaries and the decision of various parties to contest separately, which then resulted in many new faces inducted into various political parties or fielded by them.

The election saw Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) involved in a neck-to-neck competition to take control of the country’s richest civic body.

Both the parties entered new waters when they fought the election solo after breaking a decade-long alliance in the civic elections.

The Shiv Sena, which bagged 84 seats, introduced the most new faces with 61, while the BJP, which bagged 82 seats, a remarkable increase from the 31 it won in the 2012 civic elections, has the second-highest number of new faces with 30.

Congress, whose tally fell down from 52 to 31 corporators , also has 21 new faces among its corporators.

The BMC’s youngest corporator is Ayesha Shaikh, 21, from Govandi, and of the Samajwadi Party.

Some of these new faces won against party veterans.

Shiv Sena candidate Swapnil Tembvalkar won against BJP’s sitting corporator and party’s city chief Ashish Shelar’s brother Vinod Shelar.

Other new faces and first-time contenders who pulled off some stunning upsets include the BJP’s Harshita Narvekar from Cuffe Parade, who won against the Congress’ sitting corporator Shushma Shekhar, who is the daughter-in-law of senior Congress leader Annie Shekhar.

The BJP’s Rohan Rathod, who beat senior politician Devendra Amberkar, Congress’ Sufiyan Niyaz Ahmed Vanu, who won against senior Sena leader and group leader Trushna Vishwasrao.

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