Sena retains Mumbai bastion; Jadhav is Mayor

Mumbai: Shiv Sena corporator Shraddha Jadhav was today elected mayor of Mumbai, unwittingly helped by Raj Thackeray, estranged nephew of Sena chief Bal Thackeray, whose Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) stayed away from voting.

The absence of six MNS corporators and seven Samajwadi Party members dashed hopes of Congress to elect its nominee Pricilla Kadam as the mayor.

As voting for the mayoral poll began, the six MNS corporators were busy listening to a speech by Raj at Shanmukhananda hall in Sion. "We skipped voting as supporting Congress would have sent a wrong signal to MNS supporters," a leader of the three-year old outfit said.

Despite trying its best to lure corporators of the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, Congress failed to grab the mayor's post, a fact acknowledged by Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

"We were confident of the victory," Uddhav told reporters. Unlike the assembly elections, where he surfaced four days after Sena got a severe drubbing, Uddhav did not waste a single minute after the mayoral poll results to face the media.

Uddhav indicated that his 83-year old father would now play an active role in the party's day-to-day affairs. "Balasaheb will now visit Sena Bhawan once or twice a month," he said.

In the 228-member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which Sena has been ruling for the past 15 years, Jadhav bagged 114 votes, while her nearest rival Congress candidate Pricilla Kadam got 95 votes.

A commerce graduate, Jadhav was elected corporator from Parel as an independent candidate in 1992, before she joined the Sena and replaced Shubha Raul as the city mayor.

This is the second time when the mayor was elected by raising of hands and not by secret ballot.

Sena's Versova corporator Chaya Bhanji, reported 'missing' for the past 48 hours, was present during polling at the BMC headquarters.

With the Samajwadi Party deciding to stay away and the MNS corporators remaining absent, the Congress plan to score a hat-trick of victories, after defeating the saffron alliance in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, came a cropper.

The victory has also given a new lease of life for the saffron alliance, specially the Shiv Sena. BJP's Shailaja Girkar was elected deputy mayor.