India, Jan. 14 -- With campaigning for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections having ended on Tuesday, the contest has narrowed down to a largely bipolar fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with other parties struggling to gain traction in the final phase.

While both the BJP and NCP claimed they were headed for a clear majority, the Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray/UBT) failed to mount a cohesive or high-impact campaign. The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, too, appeared constrained by limited resources after its last-minute efforts to cobble an alliance with the BJP did not materialise, forcing it to contest independently.

Political observers said that the BJP and N...