Post-voting, BJP, Sena claim tide in their favour

MUMBAI: Minutes after voting ended in Mumbai on Tuesday, the Shiv Sena and BJP rushed to claim a tide in their favour going by the turnout for the polls to the country's richest civic body.

In Mumbai, the polling percentage was 41.32 per cent till 3.30 pm, closer to the turnout of 45 per cent in 2012.

Though the final figure was not yet known, officials said the overall percentage will be higher than the last time.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said “a massive” turnout in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls means there is a “big wave” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his demonetisation exercise.

“The massive voter turnout indicates that people are with the Shiv Sena and there is a big wave against Modi and demonetisation that caused endless hardship to people. The Sena is the only choice of people,” Sawant said.

“The way Uddhavji addressed his rallies, full of passion, aggression and concern for people, has touched the minds and hearts of people. This prompted them to vote for the party in large numbers,” he added.

Sawant said the BJP wanted to obliterate the Sena but people have “something else” in mind.

“Higher voter turnout means people are yearning for a change and they are in our favour. We had appointed people at booth levels to draw out voters from their homes,” said BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari.

He said his party will file a complaint with the State Election Commission to ascertain if there was “deliberate mischief” in removing names of voters from electoral rolls.

Bhandari said there was a big confusion in the voting list or else the turnout would have gone up to 60 per cent.

“We want to know if somebody indulged in deliberate mischief and deleted names of voters from the rolls. We will file a complaint with the SEC and demand an inquiry to ascertain if this was deliberately done,” he said.

“Names of about 12 lakh voters were found to be missing from the list,” Bhandari claimed.