MUMBAI: After the Shiv Sena and the BJP ended the BMC poll race neck and neck, many Sena supporters must have pondered in a quiet moment what it would have meant to have gone along with Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).The MNS put up a mediocre show, winning only seven seats, but caused a far serious damage to the Sena's aspirations by dividing the Marathi manoos votes and enabling the BJP to scrape through in many seats ahead of the Sena rivals.The Sena secured 14,43,969 votes after contesting all 227 seats and the MNS 3,94,653 votes in 201 seats. The BJP contested 211 seats and secured 13,92,676 votes.In a prestige battle after splitting from its two decades-old ally BJP, the MNS's 'engine' might have helped the Sena steam closer to the majority mark of 114 had Uddhav Thackeray accepted cousin Raj's offer of an alliance before the elections in a bid to keep the Marathi vote from being divided.For instance, in ward no 220, the BJP and Sena candidates ended in dead heat, both polling 5,946 votes. The result, decided through lottery, went in favour of BJP. The MNS secured 752 votes in the ward.In the Sena-MNS stronghold of ward 190 in Mahim, BJP's Sheetal Gambhir secured 8,401 votes and won by a margin of 443. Sena and MNS together polled 15,727 votes (7,958 and 7769, respectively).Similar is the case of Chetan Kadam, who was elected from the MNS in the last election but moved to the Sena just before the 2017 civic elections. His wife was fielded by Sena from Borivli and secured the second position. She got 1,141 votes less than the BJP candidate. The MNS candidate polled 2,224 votes in her ward.

Stay updated with all the Mumbai Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.