Click to play videoMumbai: Civic polls, to decide the fate of over 1,244 candidates in Mumbai and nine municipal corporations of Maharashtra began on Thursday. Polling was underway across 10 municipal corporations including Mumbai.
But the turnout was a poor 22 per cent till 3 pm.
In Pune, Suresh Kalmadi cast his vote with his wife Meera Kalmadi.
The polls, seen as mini Assembly polls, is a triangular contest between the Congress-NCP combine, Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance and the Raj Thackeray-led MNS.
Elections are being held in Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur municipal corporations. The 10 civic bodies have an electorate of 2.02 crore and will elect 1,244 candidates.
It's a battle for survival, a do or die for the Shiv Sena that has controlled the country's richest civic body since 1996. The ruling Congress and NCP have come together for the first time and could be in with a real chance to unseat the saffron combine. But all eyes are on the Bal Thackeray's estranged nephew, with the MNS expected to even emrge as the kingmaker.
Senior leaders like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan addressed a flurry of poll meetings to campaign for their respective parties for the February 16 elections.
In the 227-seat Mumbai Corporation, the election is a fiercely fought affair.
The polls will also prove credentials of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which threatens to endanger the Sena stronghold.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, an old friend of Thackeray, was quoted in a section of media as saying that the saffron party is on the decline and 86-year old Thackeray's son Uddhav, now Sena executive president, is a 'failure'.
In Mumbai, police have beefed up security measures to ensure smooth voting in the city. A total of 2,375 police officers and 20,000 policemen have been deployed at polling booths across the metropolis.
Almost 2,000 home guards and personnel of the State Reserve Police Force and Rapid Action Force have been deployed at strategic locations.
With Additional Inputs From PTI
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