NANDED: The results for crucial Nanded Waghala City Municipal Corporation (NWCMC) election will be announced on Thursday.
The counting of votes for the 81 seat Nanded Waghala Municipal Corporation began at 10 am.
The Nanded civic polls is a fierce fight between the ruling Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are also expected to play a crucial role.
The 81-member civic body is currently controlled by the Congress.
A total of 578 candidates are in the poll fray. The Congress and BJP are contesting on 81 seats. Shiv Sena is contesting on 76 seats (73+3), NCP is contesting on 57 seats.
For the first time, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM party is contesting in alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party BSP. The AIMIM has dominance in several Muslim-dominated wards and has fielded 33 candidates while the BSP gave tickets to 22 candidates.
Samajwadi Party is contesting on 24 seats. Independents and others are contesting the polls on 155 seats.
The Nanded civic body polls is viewed as a litmus test for former chief minister and current state Congress unit president Ashok Chavan, whose father late Shankarrao Chavan, a former defence minister, had nurtured the constituency over years.
In the 2012 polls, the Congress had won 41 seats, Sena 14, followed by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Muslimeen (AIMIM) with 11 seats, NCP 10. The BJP managed to win just two seats while Others (2) and Independent 1.
Out of 81 seats, 41 seats are reserved for women candidates, 15 seats for SC candidates, 2 for ST and 22 seats for Backward Class communities.