Mumbai: For the first time in the history of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls, a constituency’s fate was decided by a lottery which pushed the BJP an inch closer to the Shiv Sena’s tally.
The tie-breaker helped the BJP to gain one more seat in the civic polls taking its tally to 82, which is only two seats behind its former ally, the Shiv Sena.
The tie-breaker was necessitated after the Sena’s Surendra Bagalkar and the BJP’s Atul Shah, who were contesting from Grant Road, polled the exact number of votes. Bagalkar, a sitting corporator, has been in office for at least two terms and was given a tough fight by the BJP’s former legislator, Shah. Both polled 5,946 votes.
Also Read: Mumbai civic polls: Shiv Sena is No.1, BJP emerges as a close contender, Congress and NCP suffer crushing defeats
As per provisions in the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, and the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India, a ‘chit’ was
picked by a child from a box. This sealed Bagalkar’s fate.
Earlier, after polling an identical number of votes, both the candidates asked for a recounting, that was held. In fact, the votes were counted thrice to rule out any error in the process.
After the first round of counting, Shah was leading by 64 votes, but after the third round, Shah and Bagalkar polled 5,946 votes each.
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