From curse to clout: BJP rebrands itself as ‘Big Brother’

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In a major political development, the breakdown of the Mahayuti alliance proved to be a boon for the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party by winning 57 seats out of the 92 it contested in the seventh general elections of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC). The results were declared on Friday.

The BJP’s performance marks a significant rise from the 23 seats it held in 2015, registering a gain of 35 seats in the 2025 elections.

Mahayuti’s ideological rival, the AIMIM, also delivered a strong performance, winning 33 seats, an improvement of nine seats compared to the 24 seats it had secured in 2015.

Among the alliance partners, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena suffered major losses. Despite fielding 95 candidates, the party managed to win only 13 seats. Similarly, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which also contested 95 seats, could secure just six seats. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, which fielded 61 candidates, won four seats, while the Congress and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) secured one seat each. Under the Maha Vikas Aghadi banner, the Congress and NCP fielded 71 and 22 candidates, respectively.

Lathicharge at three locations

Tension prevailed at multiple counting centres during the day, prompting police to resort to mild lathicharge at three locations. The first incident occurred in the Osmanpura area during the morning hours at the Government College of Engineering, one of the four counting centres. A few people, including former mayor Vikas Jain, sustained injuries.

The second lathicharge took place outside the counting centre at Garware Hi-Tech Park in Chikalthana MIDC in the afternoon, while the third occurred at SFS High School, where police intervened to disperse the crowd.

115 corporators elected

As reported earlier, the CSMC elections were held on January 15 for the first time on a prabhag basis. The voter turnout stood at 59.82 per cent. Of the 11.18 lakh registered voters, over 6.69 lakh cast their ballots. From a total of 859 candidates, results for 115 corporators were declared.