India, Jan. 16 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party and its Mahayuti alliance with Shiv Sena is leading in 24 of the 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Nagpur, after counting of votes began Friday morning.

The BJP and Shiv Sena are comfortably ahead in the high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as per trends, with the alliance ahead in 210 of the 227 wards.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which contested as an alliance, are leading trailing in most districts. Going by the trends, the Mahayuti alliance is poised to cross the majority mark of 114 needed to wrest power in the BMC.

The Congress, with its ally Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, has wrest...