Mumbai, Feb.2 (ANI): The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance completed a clean sweep in the Maharashtra civic body polls, and ensured a majority hold over the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday, pushing the Congress and other political rivals like Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) into the background in most of the elections to ten civic bodies in the state.

The Sena-BJP combine won 110 seats and is all set for another five-year term in the BMC and in several other cities.
The Congress managed to win 73 seats in Mumbai, the NCP 14, the MNS 7 and others 23.

The mood was jubilant outside Matoshri, Sena chief Bal Thackeray's home in suburban Bandra, with Shiv Sainiks gathering in large numbers with flags and bursting crackers.

The counting of votes for the BMC and nine other municipal bodies began at 9 a.m. this morning and was held at 24 centres in the city, said Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Special Projects) Vijay Kalam Patil.

He said that about 46 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in Mumbai and the state-wide average was 58 per cent.

ere is a corporation-wise breakup of some of the results:

BMC (227/227)

Party Seats Won

BJP/Sena -110

Congress -73

NCP-14

MNS-7

Others-23

The Counting of votes for civic elections in Pune has also been completed, and the Congress-NCP combine has won 77 of the 144 seats up for grabs. The Shiv Sena-BJP combine secured 45 seats, while the MNS and others won eight and 14 seats respectively.

Pune (144/144)

Party Seats Won.

Congress-NCP - 77

BJP/Sena -45

Others- 14

MNS-8

The results of Nagpur municipal elections have been declared. The Siv Sena-BJP alliance has won 65 seats, the Congress 32, the NCP 8, the MNS 2 and others 28.

Nagpur: (135/135)

Party Seats Won.

BJP-57

Shiv Sena-8

Congress-32

NCP-8

MNS-2

BSP-3

Ind-11

RJD-3

RPI-9

CPM-1

Muslim League-1

The municipal corporation results for Nashik have been declared. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance has won 40 seats, the Congress 21, the NCP 17 and the MNS 12.

Nashik (90/90)

Party Seats Won.

BJP/Sena-40

Cong-21

NCP-17

MNS-12

In Thane, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine won 53 seats, the Congress 16, the NCP 25, the MNS 3 and others 19.

Thane (116/116)

Party Seats Won.

BJP-5

Shiv Sena-8

Congress-16

NCP-25

MNS-3

Samajwadi Party-5

BSP-2

Shivraj Party-2

In Pimpri Chinchwad, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine won 13 seats, the Congress 20, the NCP 60 and others 12.

Municipal corporation elections were held on Thursday in the following: Mumbai (227 wards), Thane (116 wards), Ulhasnagar (76 wards), Pune (144 wards), Pimpri-Chinchwad (105 wards), Nashik (108 wards), Solapur (98 wards), Akola (71 wards), Amravati (81 wards), Nagpur (136 wards).

The BMC is the richest civic body in the country, having control over a budget exceeding Rs.12,000 crores. In all, 2,376 candidates were in the fray. Around 58 per cent voters exercised their franchise in 10 municipal corporations in Maharashtra in largely incident-free polling. Mumbai recorded 46 per cent voting as major parties made all out efforts to dominate the state's urban landscape.

The election was an issue of prestige for the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance as it was seen as being weakened by the exit of top leaders Raj Thackeray and Narayan Rane. The alliance has a ten-year stranglehold over the civic body.

State Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh claimed that the saffron brigade was trying to whip up a mass hysteria and distract people from key issues.

What they did in their campaigning, they did not discuss the issues of development. We tried our best to tell the people that this election is fought on the issue of development, but they appealed emotionally. Like 'if we are voted out of power, Mumbai would be separated from Maharashtra,' they made this appeal. And 'only because of us, this Mumbaikars or Marathi people are safe in Mumbai', Deshmukh said.

The outcome is crucial to the future of the Shiv Sena, which held political sway over Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999. (ANI)