Mumbai votes to elect a new BMC, Fadnavis thanks voters
Nine other municipal corporations in Maharashtra are also undergoing polls during the day.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted after the voting: "Thank you #Mumbai for the record voting percentage & people from all Municipal Corporations & ZP for participating in festival of democracy!"
With an annual budget of Rs 37,000 crores, BMC enjoys a unique stature as the richest civic body.
The Sena-BJP coalition had been ruling the BMC for a long time but the two parties are falling out with each other for quite some time now with the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray openly criticising Narendra Modi and even siding with his arch rivals over the demonetisation issue.
A loss of Sena will marginalise it in the state and Mumbai politics, said political observers.
On Tuesday, among the other civic bodies that went to polls were in Nagpur, Thane, Pune and Nashik. Elections are also being held for 11 Zilla Parishads and 118 Panchayat Samitis.
The total number of voters in the ten municipalities are 3.77 crore. A total of 17,331 candidates were in the fray for 5,512 seats.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis earlier said he would take the responsibility if the BJP loses but if the party wins all credits with go to the party.
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