What happened in the Akola Municipal Corporation in the last elections in 2017?

As Maharashtra goes to the polls on Thursday for elections to 29 municipal corporations, polling for 2,869 seats across 893 wards will begin at 7.30 am and conclude at 5.30 pm. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates contesting the civic elections across the state.

The focus is firmly on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti is locked in a high-stakes contest with the united Thackeray cousins, Raj and Uddhav, for control of the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which has an annual budget exceeding Rs 74,400 crore, around 1,700 candidates are in the fray for 227 seats. The BMC elections are being held after a delay of 4 years, adding to the political significance of the contest.

What happened in the Akola Municipal Corporation in the last elections in 2017?

The last municipal corporation elections in Akola were held in February 2017. The local body then had a total of 4,77,372 voters, out of which, 2,46,248 were males, 2,31,101 were females and 23 belonged to the third gender.

The Akola Municipal Corporation then had a total strength of 80 seats. In the 2017 civic elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party, securing a clear majority with 48 seats.

The Congress finished second with 13 seats, while the Shiv Sena won 8 seats. The Nationalist Congress Party secured 5 seats, and the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh won 3 seats. The All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen managed to win 1 seat, while independents and other smaller parties accounted for the remaining 2 seats.

Maharashtra Municipal Corporation polls results and political battles

Except for Mumbai, all other municipal corporations in Maharashtra have multi member wards. The counting of votes for all civic bodies will take place on January 16.

The elections, being conducted after a gap of several years due to legal and administrative delays, are widely being viewed as a mini assembly battle. The results are expected to test the organisational strength and voter appeal of the split factions of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party, as well as the electoral reach of the ruling Mahayuti and the Congress.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who led the campaign for the BJP led Mahayuti, has predicted that Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray would emerge as the biggest loser from his alliance with cousin and Shiv Sena UBT president Uddhav Thackeray.

With control of powerful urban civic bodies at stake, the outcome of these elections is expected to have a significant impact on Maharashtra’s political landscape in the months ahead.