Counting for 10 municipal corporation polls held yesterday and elections to 27 zilla parishads and 309 panchayat samitis held February 7 began this morning.

In the Mumbai BMC polls, 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 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 are in the fray for the 227 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 neighbouring Thane (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 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.

In Nagpur, the second capital of the state, the ruling BJP has won 14 seats so far. Congress has won 7 seats; NCP, Shiv Sena, BSP and MNS have bagged one seat each, while two seats have been claimed by independents.

In Nashik, MNS was leading in 6 seats, while Congress, NCP and BJP were leading in five seats each by noon. BJP had won two seats, where results are out.

In Pune, in an upset for NCP, Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal has lost to his BJP rival as per the early results for the 152-member Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

MNS has won 5 seats, NCP has won 7, Congress 3, BJP 2 and Shiv Sena 1 in Pune so far.

Ganesh Bidkar (BJP), who was chairman of the standing committee in the outgoing house, defeated Rajpal by 1,264 votes.

Congress and NCP had fought the civic elections independently in Pune while the Saffron alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena joined forces with Ramdas Athavale faction of RPI.

With Mumbai registering almost the same voter turnout of 46 per cent for the BMC polls on Thursday as it did five years ago (46.05 per cent), election officials were disappointed that their efforts to boost voting had not succeeded. At the same time, political parties feared that the results could also be identical and not produce a clear winner.

With the tally of seats for both alliances likely to be very close, the Shiv Sena-BJP and the Congress-NCP put up a brave face on Thursday evening, with both sides saying that they expected to go past the halfway mark. The MNS, meanwhile, sat on the fence playing a wait-and-watch game.

With the arithmetic expected to be close once the results are announced, Congress leaders said they have now pinned their hopes on their original strategy — that the alliance with the NCP would mean a consolidation of votes against the Sena-BJP and, therefore, give a slender margin.

The Congress official line is the party expects the alliance will comfortably win 114 seats. “Despite the turnout not being very high, the Congress-NCP combine will comfortably assume power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),” said Guardian Minister for the suburbs and senior Congress legislator Arif Naseem Khan. “Even if it is a tight finish, I am confident we will be closest to the winning mark.” He said the slums had seen robust voting, reaching 52 per cent and 55 per cent in some areas.

Another Congress MLA said the turnout in slums could have been greater. “Difficulty in finding names on the list saw people return home without voting,” he said. “That could cost us crucial seats, including in traditional Congress bastions in slum areas.”

The Sena-BJP tied up with RPI (Athavale) to ensure Dalit votes and the Congress and NCP, who were fighting each other, formed an alliance. The Sena-BJP leaders are expecting the transfer of voters between the allies to help them sail through.

“If the voting has remained the same, there will not be a much different outcome. Usually, if there is an anti-incumbency factor in elections, there is higher turnout. Though it is a little early to react, we don’t think it will adversely affect our chances,” said leader of opposition in the legislative council Vinod Tawde.

Leaders said there were mistakes in the voters’ list, which affected the turnout.

“We claimed through the elections that we have worked for the city. We think people have taken it positively and we will see it in results tomorrow. We are confident of returning to power,” said Anil Desai, Shiv Sena general secretary.