BMC Polls: BJP confident of victory, says people voting against Sena's 'mafia raj'

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Feb. 22 (ANI): Expressing confidence over securing a majority in the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said the aggressive voting by the people clearly shows they are voting against the Shiv Sena's mafia raj. "It is for the first time that Mumbai had 55 to 60 percent polling across the city. And the aggressive voting means it is a voting against the Mumbai Shiv Sena's mafia raj. And we are very much confident that BJP will be number one party. We will be able to do, perform and bring transparency in Mumbai Municipal Corporation," BJP leader Kirit Somaiya told ANI. Mumbai yesterday recorded 55 percent voting in the elections to the BMC, marking the highest in the last five times. Polling for 227 seats of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai concluded at 5:30 pm where a total of 17,331 candidates were in the fray for 3,210 seats in 10 municipal corporations. The civic body polls witnessed voters from political, Bollywood and sports fraternity. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena Party chief Uddhav Thackeray were among the many who cast their votes. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray also cast his vote earlier in the day. Bollywood stars including Anushka Sharma, John Abraham, Ranveer Singh, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Dhawan , veteran actress Rekha and director Subhash Ghai also stepped out to cast their vote. Former Indian cricketer and Rajya Sabha MP Sachin Tendulkar also cast his vote, along with his wife Anjali. The local body polls will be witnessing a high pitch battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena, the Congress, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The result of BMC election 2017 will be out on 23 February. (ANI)