In the melee, the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) found itself stranded while the Shiv Sena supported the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress votes were split among various fronts even as Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) supported the BJP-Sena combine.

What ensued was a tie between BJP and NCP, with 54 votes each. Finally, BJP member Raghunath Gouda was declared elected through the lottery method.

After the election, BJP's strength in the 16-member school board went up to three from two, while that of Congress came down to three from four. All the parties had issued whips so that all the elected members cast their votes.

During this four-hour long drama, 143 out of 144 corporators voted. Of this, nine were held invalid on technical grounds. More than any other party, it was the Congress votes that got split as the party corporators secretly supported either BJP or NCP and managed to garner only 26 votes as against their strength of 42. BJP and NCP squared off with 54 votes each.

In the race for the lone seat were three members - Raghunath Gouda (BJP), Kaka Chavan (NCP) and Rajendra Bhutada (Congress). Following the tie, mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale selected the name of Gouda by the lottery method.

Congress corporator Aba Bagul alleged that elected members were given a bribe of up to Rs 5 lakh. "Support of many corporators from one party was acquired by the other by offering them huge sums of money," he said.

Opposition leader Vikas Mathkari however had another take. "Gouda win is indicative of how strong and invincible the BJP-Sena alliance is," he said.