After around a month of heated exchanges between the BJP and Shiv Sena leaders in India’s financial capital Mumbai, voting for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ended today. While the competing parties would now wait for the results to be announced on Thursday, the fate of national parties like the Congress and BJP in Mumbai may affect the course of ongoing Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh by providing talking points to candidates and campaigners. Along with Mumbai, results of civic polls in Pune and Nagpur would also play the same role.

Four phases of the seven-phase UP elections are yet to be carried out. The fourth phase would coincide with the announcement of results of the Maharashtra civic polls on Thursday. It has been a pattern in the last three phases that the top leaders of all parties including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati address rallies on the election day in an area where polls would take place in the next phase.

It is expected that these leaders would address rallies on Thursday as well. The results of Maharashtra civic polls would not only provide an instant boost to the winning party but also new issues to talk about. In case BJP wins, it will provide PM Modi another opportunity to press his point that BJP is winning everywhere in the country, even after demonetisation.

In his recent rallies in the state, PM Modi had made it a point to emphasize how BJP performed exceptionally well in civic polls in several states including Punjab, Maharashtra and  Odisha after the note ban. If the exit polls are right, BJP is giving a neck-to-neck fight to the ruling Shiv Sena in Mumbai and it is ahead of the competition in Pune.

A positive result for BJP on Thursday would give fresh energy to BJP and RSS cadres in Uttar Pradesh. Not only this, it will also prove wrong the opposition’s claim that demonetisation has been rejected across the country. All of this could have a significant bearing on the remaining three phases of polls in the state where BJP continues to enjoy some support due to Modi’s charisma, though not as much as 2014.