Mumbai heading towards hung House; MNS leads in 25 seats

MUMBAI,Febrauary17,2012: The country's richest civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, appeared headed towards a hung House, going by early trends and results. Counting for 10 municipal corporation polls held yesterday and elections to 27 zilla parishads and 309 Panchayat Samitis held on February 7 began this morning. In Mumbai, the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine was ahead in 75 seats, while the Congress-NCP combine was ahead in 50 seats. Raj Thackeray-led MNS was leading in about 25 seats. The Sena has bagged 8 seats, BJP 3, Congress 3, NCP 1 and MNS 1 as per the results declared so far. In Thane, the Sena-BJP combine was leading in 45 seats while the Congress-NCP front was leading in 36 seats. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, NCP was leading in 30 seats. Altogether 2,232 candidates were in the fray for 227 electoral wards in Mumbai. Elections were also held yesterday for Thane, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur municipal corporations. The Shiv Sena-BJP combine rules Mumbai, besides the neighbouring Thane (total seats 130), Ulhasnagar (78), Nashik (122) and Nagpur (145). Congress controls Amravati (87), the Congress-NCP combine rules in Pune (152) and Solapur (102). NCP alone holds Pimpri-Chinchwad civic body (126) while Congress alone rules in Amravati (87). Akola municipal corporation has 73 seats and was under Congress-NCP rule but was dissolved by state government last year over financial irregularities.