Mixed trends in Maharashtra civic poll count

Counting of votes for the 10 Maharashtra civic corporations indicated mixed early trends Friday, giving anxious moments to the main contending parties.

The initial leads and trends continued to swing at different hours, leaving the situation uncertain for the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, besides their Dalit partners, and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), said poll officials.

In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), with 227 seats at stake, the trends pointed to a hung house, but the situation could change by afternoon when the final picture would be clear.

Counting was under way in all the 10 municipal corporations – Mumbai (227 seats), Thane (130), Ulhasnagar (78), Pune (152), Pimpri-Chinchwad (128), Nashik (122), Solapur (102), Akola (73), Amravati (87) and Nagpur (145).

According to pointers at 10 a.m., the trends showed Shiv Sena-BJP leading in 58, Congress-NCP in 46, MNS in 22 and other parties/independents in 13 seats.

A majority of the results is expected by late afternoon in all the civic bodies which went to polls Feb 16 and zilla parishads and gram panchayats which voted Feb 7.