Varun Singh and Somita Pal explain why we're likely to have a Saffron mayor again for the next two years

Shiv Sena's Shraddha Jadhav has a clear upper hand over Congress candidate Prescila Kadam in today's mayoral election.

The polls will be held at 11 am at the BMC headquarters and results will be declared in a couple of hours.

The Sena is getting help from the MNS and the Samajwadi Party, the Congress's alliance partners in the BMC right now. Both the parties have decided to stay neutral this time.

This will reduce the Congress-led alliance's numbers from 109 corporators to 96.
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While SP has seven corporators, the MNS has six. An MNS leader said, "If we support the Congress, our Marathi manoos ideology will be affected. Hence, we will remain neutral." But the Sena-BJP alliance too has suffered.

Leading Lady? Shraddha Jadhav, Shiv Sena's mayoral candidate is confident of a victory against Congress candidate Prescila Kadam.

Missing corporators

Its current figure of 115 has been reduced by two with two corporators currently missing. Even Independent candidate Adolf D'souza who supported the alliance couldn't be traced until last evening.

But Jadhav is confident. "I am sure I will win, the numbers are with us." However, the buzz is that Jadhav is also close to many MNS leaders and this could be one of the reasons why the MNS has decided to stay neutral.
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No defections

And as is usual, corporators are being taken and kept in one place till hours before the election so that they don't defect to the other side.

A Sena corporator claims that they'll be forming small groups and staying in hotels in their own areas.

Congress's Rajhans Singh, the opposition leader in the BMC, said, "All our and NCP corporators are staying together at a hotel in the western suburbs.

We have done this so that we all can go together to the BMC headquarters to vote."

Public Support

Earlier, voting for the mayor's election was through secret ballot. But in 2007, the rule was changed and corporators had to raise their hands and declare support for the candidate.

In mayoral elections, once an alliance is formed in u00a0writing and submitted to u00a0the BMC, they cannot u00a0u00a0support a candidate of the opposing party. This can lead to the corporator's disqualification.

Leading Lady? Shraddha Jadhav, Shiv Sena's mayoral candidate is confident of a victory against Congress candidate Prescila Kadam.