Maharashtra headed for mini general elections on Wednesday, as the State Election Commission (SEC) scheduled the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and nine other municipal Corporations across Maharashtra for February 21 and slated the polls to 25 Zilla Parishads and 283 Panchayat Samitis in the State in two phases for February 16 and 21.
The counting of votes, polled in corporation, ZP and Panchayat Samiti elections, will be held on February 23.
Being held as it is nearly in the middle of its five-year tenure in office in the State, the forthcoming elections will be another test of popularity for the BJP-led saffron alliance Government in Maharashtra.
Given that it performed impressively in all the four phases of the recently held municipal council elections in the State, the ruling BJP goes to the polls as favourites.
Though the ruling saffron alliance partners –albeit belatedly-initiated seat-sharing talks for the crucial BMC polls within hours after the SEC declared the election schedule, it remains to be seen if the Shiv Sena and BJP will firm up an electoral tie-up for the February 21 polls. This is considering that both the parties have limited time at their disposal to foramlise the seat adjustments.
In the 2012 BMC polls, the Shiv Sena-which had forged an alliance with the BJP and RPI(A) – had contested 135 out of the total 227 seats. The BJP had put up candidates in 63 wards, while the RPI(A) had contested 29 seats. Of the 135 seats it had contested, the Sena had won 75 seats, while the BJP had bagged 32 seats out of the 63 seats it had contested. The RPI (A) had bagged mere one seat.
Keeping in view that it is at the helm of affairs in the State, the ruling BJP has – this time around – has sent an informal word across to the Sena leadership that it is looking for a 114:113 seat-sharing formula for the polls to the 227-member BMC.
However, the Sena – which is the principal ruling party in the BMC ---is no mood to part with extra 50 seats than the 63 seats that the BJP had contested in the 2012 BMC polls. It remains to be seen if the saffron alliance partners will arrive at a middle ground and hammer out a seat-sharing arrangement for the polls.
That the forthcoming elections are indeed a litmus test for the BJP-led saffron alliance government can be evidenced from the fact that nearly 80 per cent of the total voters will exercise their franchise in the polls.
For, as many as 5,09,37,606 people are expected to vote in the elections to 25 Zilla Parishads, while 5,06,56,373 voters are slated to exercise their right in the Panchayat Samiti polls. Similarly, the elections to 10 municipal corporations will see 2,57,19,093 people turn up at the polling stations.
Apart from BMC, the other municipal corporations that will go polls on February will be: Thane, Ulhasnagar, Nashik, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur.
While 15 Zilla Parishads and 165 Panchayat samitis will go to polls on February 16, the elections to 10 ZPs and 118 panchayat samitis will be held on February 21.