THANE, Jan. 2 -- Even as the controversy about candidates being elected unopposed escalates, a total of nine such Mahayuti candidates have emerged victorious in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) elections. After three seats were secured by the BJP on Wednesday, two more of its candidates and four Shiv Sena candidates were declared elected unopposed on Thursday. BJP candidate Manda Subhash Patil from Panel 27A was elected after Adv Suvarna Mhatre from the MNS withdrew her nomination. In Panel 24, 16 candidates from the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP and independent groups were initially in the fray. However, all non-BJP and non-Shiv Sena candidates withdrew their nominations on Thursday, resulting in the unopposed election of Jyoti Pawan Patil (BJP), Ramesh Mhatre (Shiv Sena), Vishwanath Rane (Shiv Sena) and Vrushali Ranjit Joshi (Shiv Sena). MLA Rajesh More's son Harshal More (Shiv Sena) also won unopposed. Former Kalyan Rural MLA Pramod (Raju) Patil said, "The panel system has been designed to favour ruling party candidates, making it difficult for the opposition to survive." Patil added that unopposed candidates would not feel accountable to voters, undermining democratic principles. Similar allegations have emerged from Thane, where MNS leader Avinash Jadhav and NCP (SP) leader Jitendra Awhad accused the Mahayuti, in connivance with election officials, of rejecting opposition nomination forms on trivial grounds while accepting BJP and Shiv Sena nominations despite alleged discrepancies. On Thursday, a delegation of MNS and other opposition leaders met TMC officials and lodged a formal complaint....