82 year Old Samal Narasubai cast her vote at a center in kamathipura for BMC election. Express photo by Nirmal Harindran 82 year Old Samal Narasubai cast her vote at a center in kamathipura for BMC election. Express photo by Nirmal Harindran The elections for 227 wards of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), country’s richest civic body, ended on a positive note on Tuesday with the highest ever voter turnout recorded to far. 55.28 per cent of the total electorate cast their vote even after there were reports of several missing out because they could not find their named in the voters’ list. On the flip side, some also contended that the rise in voter turnout was because of the same reason stating “the surge was because of deletion of names and not because of people coming out to vote”. WATCH VIDEO | BMC Polls: B-Town Celebs Subhash Ghai, Vishal Dadlani, Shraddha Kapoor Cast Their Votes The voting began at 7: 30 am on Tuesday morning and went on smoothly throughout the day with no reports of any security related problems surfacing. Apart from the local population, celebrities also came out in good numbers to cast their votes and urged others to do the same. Among the first were Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma and Suniel Shetty with the latter two also taking to micro-blogging site Twitter appealing others to cast their vote. First-time voter cast her votes for BMC elections at Dharavi on Tuesday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar First-time voter cast her votes for BMC elections at Dharavi on Tuesday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar A total of 2,275 candidates were in the fray for 227 seats with more than 7,297 polling centres and over 1.95 crore voters across the state. Those who faced problems in voting including bollywood Actor Varun Dhawan and BJP member Shaina NC. While Shaina could later cast her vote because the assistance provided by authorities, Dhawan had to return disappointed. Interacting with the media, he expressed this disappointment and said that he will take up the matter with state Election Commission. WATCH VIDEO | BMC Polls: CM Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray With Family Cast Ballot Read More: From Shah Rukh Khan to Anushka Sharma, Bollywood comes out to vote People queue up to cast their votes for BMC elections at Dharavi on Tuesday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar People queue up to cast their votes for BMC elections at Dharavi on Tuesday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar Some also concluded that the high number of voting turnout was because of the enthusiasm shown by Marathi voters. The reason being Shiv Sena’s call to older Shiv Sainiks urging ‘Marathi Manoos’ to come out in large numbers and support the party which was fighting without the support of its former ally BJP (both the parties are still in an allies in state government). On the contrary, the Gujarati speaking voters, who are believed to be behind BJP’s success in the state during Assembly elections, did not show the same enthusiasm as their Marathi speaking counterparts. BMC civic polls closed with a record 55.28% voter turnout. Express photo by Nirmal Harindran BMC civic polls closed with a record 55.28% voter turnout. Express photo by Nirmal Harindran Read More: Chaos, anger as many names missing from voter lists Among the areas which witnessed highest percentage of voting were Chrkop, Dahisar, Magathane, Bhandup, Shivaji Park, Kabutarkhana, Kamgar Krida Kendra among others. All these areas are heavily dominated by Marathi speaking population. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena alleged that more than 10 Lakh voters were left out adding that the party was in process of collecting more data. In addition, many from the film industry also failed to cast their vote because they were not available in the city. Burqa clad Muslim women show their voter ID card while lined up outside a polling station to cast their vote for BMC elections at Dharavi on Tuesday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar Burqa clad Muslim women show their voter ID card while lined up outside a polling station to cast their vote for BMC elections at Dharavi on Tuesday. Express photo by Prashant Nadkar Read More: Highest ever voter turnout at 55.28 per cent Another interesting aspect of the BMC polls this year was entry of Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which aimed at consolidating the Muslim votes across the city. The party fielded 59 candidates, mostly in Muslim dominated areas, and is expected to record victory on 6 to 8 seats. The polling closed at 5:30 in the evening and the voting percentage was initially counted to be 52.17 per cent which was later revised to 55.28 per cent. The last time Mumbai saw high voting percentage was in 1992 when 49 per cent voters had exercised their franchise. © The Indian Express Online Media Pvt Ltd

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