Civic Polls | 68 Mahayuti candidates elected unopposed, including 44 of BJP

MUMBAI: The BJP and its Mahayuti allies have won 68 seats unopposed in the Maharashtra civic polls scheduled for January 15, even as Opposition parties alleged that the ruling combine used threats and money to force candidates to withdraw. Across the state, 68 candidates from the BJP and Mahayuti were elected unopposed, reflecting the party’s growing strength in urban local bodies, BJP leader Keshav Upadhye said on Friday. This includes 44 from the BJP, with the highest numbers from Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation in Thane district, followed by Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Panvel, Bhiwandi, Dhule, Jalgaon, and Ahilyanagar. BJP candidates Manjusha Nagpure and Shrikant Jagtap from Pune’s ward number 35 were elected unopposed after their opponents withdrew their nominations. The two had also been elected from the ward between 2017 and 2022.

Hailing the wins, Union minister and senior BJP leader Murlidhar Mohol said the next mayor of Pune will be from his party. “We have a target of 125 seats, out of which we have already won two, so 123 are remaining. Two seats were won unopposed. This is a certificate for our party’s good governance,” he claimed. The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena saw 22 of its candidates elected unopposed, while the figure was two for Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. BJP leaders attributed the trend to the popularity of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the successful electoral strategy of state unit president Ravindra Chavan, helping the BJP emerge as a dominant force in municipal councils and major municipal corporations. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena accused the ruling dispensation of using money and threats to get Opposition candidates to withdraw from the fray.