Brand Thackeray reigns supreme in Mumbai; wins 3 seats out of 4 contested

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) scored victories in four out of six seats in the country’s financial capital which has been fiefdom of the united Shiv Sena for over three decades now. After the split in the party, orchestrated by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Thackeray had to give up on the party name and election symbol.

Faced with the allegations of fraud in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which it ran for two decades, the Thackerays were grilled with a series of inquiries announced by the Shinde led state government. Central agencies began probing the alleged scam in the Covid-19 related relief work, targeting Thackeray’s tenure as the Chief Minister. Close aides of Thackerays were jailed, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut – who later released on bail. With no local body elections, the BMC was controlled by the state government appointed administrator. Several corporators in Mumbai from Thackeray’s side joined Shinde led Sena over the last one year.

Since 2004, Mumbai has been voting convincingly in favour of a single side. Congress had won five seats in 2004 and 2009 while united Sena and NCP had won one seat each. In 2014 and 2019, the saffron-alliance of the United Sena and BJP won three seats each. The party winning most seats has been part of the central government since 2004.

In a changed political situation in 2024, Thackeray led Sena contested four and a new ally in the Congress, fought on two. Out of its four, the SS-UBT fought against Shinde Sena on three seats and against the BJP on one seat. The party won Mumbai South- contested by Arvind Sawant, Mumbai South Central – contested by Anil Desai, Mumbai North East – contested by Sanjay Dina Patil. The Thackeray Sena’s vital support to Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad in Mumbai North Central also led her to victory in a tightly contested battle against BJP’s Ujjwal Nikam.

The Eknath Shinde-led Sena lost two of the three seats contested, stressing that despite the leaders shifting loyalties, the workers have remained with the Thackerays.

For Congress, its Mumbai unit chief Varsha Gaikwad scoring a victory in Mumbai North Central is an opportunity to revive the party in the city, especially ahead of upcoming assembly and local body elections. According to sources, the Marathi and Muslim vote unity aided by north Indian votes in certain pockets has helped the opposition front secure victories.

The BJP is left with only one seat, Mumbai North, where Union minister Piyush Goyal won with a large margin of over 3.50 lakh votes. However, despite the strong force of MLAs and resources, two of its candidates from Mumbai North east and Mumbai North Central faced defeat.

Mumbai South

Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT) has made history by retaining the Mumbai South seat for the third consecutive time, matching the feat achieved earlier by Murli Deora of the Congress.

Sawant secured a commanding victory with over 50,000 votes (exact figure pending) in a contest where he maintained a lead from the outset, defeating Shinde-led Shiv Sena candidate Yamini Jadhav.

The delay by Shinde Sena in announcing a suitable candidate against Sawant, followed by the finalisation of Yamini Jadhav’s candidacy, and the rallying of Muslim voters, who make up nearly 25 per cent of the constituency, played a pivotal role in ensuring Sawant’s resounding triumph.

From the country’s wealthiest individuals to the city’s historical locals of the Koli community, the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency boasts a diverse electorate. While historically a Congress stronghold, with the party winning six of the eleven elections held in the last four decades, Sawant has carved a niche for himself, clinching victory in 2014 and repeating it twice since.

Sawant’s win also raises questions about Shiv Sena’s strategy to attract former Congress leader Milind Deora, whose inclusion in the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was expected to bolster the party’s prospects in a constituency where the Deoras wield considerable influence.

Mumbai South Central

In the Mumbai South Central constituency, Anil Desai from Shiv Sena (UBT) defeated Rahul Shewale from the Shiv Sena who won the seat for two consecutive terms as a candidate of undivided Sena.

Desai who won by 53,384 votes, took the lead and continued with it till the end of the day. In the final count on Tuesday, out of total 7,94,872 votes, Desai polled 3,95,138 votes, whereas Shewale polled 3,41,754 votes. “This victory only proves that they might have been successful in stealing MLAs and MPs; but Shiv Sainiks from ground remained loyal to its original party and the real leader,” said Vijaya Walunj, a party worker from Shiv Sena (UBT) who was among hundreds of the party workers present outside the counting centre in Sewri to celebrate the victory.

Former corporator from Shiv Sena (UBT) Ramdas Kamble, said, “The victories today show that people from the constituency, which has been Sena stronghold, know which is the real Shiv Sena… Sena’s headquarter is located in this constituency.”

The undivided Shiv Sena won the seat twice in a row with Rahul Shewale who then joined Shinde led Sena after the party split.

Pollution control, improving housing standards and Dharavi redevelopment project among others have been various issues raised by voters from this densely populated diverse constituency encompassing the working class to affluent population.

Mumbai North East

Shiv Sena candidate (UBT) Sanjay Dina Patil won Mumbai North East seat with over 29,000 votes against BJP’s Mihir Kotecha. Patil, who was contesting for the fourth time from the constituency, was elected in 2009. He, however, faced defeats in 2014 and 2019 against Kirit Somaiya and Manoj Kotak respectively.

Patil said, “My opposition used muscle as well as money power to win the election. I have myself contested four time and my parents have been active in politics, but I have never seen misusing their power like this before. Despite all this, my people chose me and I am thankful to them.”

There are about six assembly seats in the constituency consisting of Muslim-populated Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar, Gujarati-Marwari dominated lanes in Ghatkopar, Marathi-speaking voters in Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg and Bhandup and a mixed population in Mulund.

Patil had sought help from local Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders and the MLAs Ramesh Korgaonkar (Bhandup) and Sunil Raut (Vikhroli) often accompanied Patil in his campaigns.

On Tuesday, Kotecha was at the counting centre in Vikhroli (East), while Patil showed up only in the evening after his victory was confirmed. Patil’s supporters started gathering in the by-lanes across the constituency and celebrated, bursting crackers and dancing.

Kotecha got 1,16,421 votes from Mulund, 52,807 from Vikhroli and 75,659 from Bhandup. He bagged 63,370 and 83,231 votes from Ghatkopar west and east respectively. The BJP lost a major chunk of votes from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar as only 28,101 people voted for him against Patil who got 1,16,072 which is the largest chunk of his vote share. While the Shiv Sena UBT candidate got over 79,000 votes from Ghatkopar (west) and Bhandup, 68,672 votes from Vikhroli, 55,979 from Mulund and 49,622 from Ghatkopar (east).

Mumbai North

The Mumbai North seat — considered to be a safe seat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), became one of the two winning seats for the Mahayuti alliance in Mumbai, with Piyush Goyal winning with a huge margin of 3.5 lakh votes, defeating Bhushan Patil of the Congress.

Walking out of the counting centre, Goyal refrained from making any statement. However, sources close to the Union minister said that he will be flying to Delhi immediately.

“Since morning, he has been deliberating with party’s top bosses in Delhi and by evening he has to be there,” said a source close to Goyal. Speaking to The Indian Express, Bhushan Patil said, “We have given a good fight and have brought down the margin.”

The Mumbai North constituency covers six assembly seats — Malad, Charkop, Kandivali (East), Magathane, Borivli and Dahisar. Five of these seats have sitting MLAs from the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, while one seat (Malad) belongs to the Congress.

In 2019, then BJP MP Gopal Shetty won the seat by a margin of 4.65 lakh votes defeating Congress’ Urmila Matondkar. In 2014, Shetty won by a 4.47 lakh margin against Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam.The voter turnout in this constituency was the highest in Mumbai at 46.91 per cent.

Mumbai North Central

The pitched battle for Mumbai North Central constituency between first-time Lok Sabha candidates Ujjwal Nikam of the BJP and Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress, resulted in Congress city unit chief winning the seat with a margin of less than 20,000 votes.

Nikam, senior criminal lawyer, was leading by over 50, 000 votes in the initial rounds of counting in core BJP bastions, including Vile Parle. The tables turned after 4 pm during final rounds with Varsha Gaikwad taking a lead that gradually increased as votes from Bandra and Kurla were counted.

Till 8 pm, Gaikwad was leading by 16, 514 votes as she polled nearly 4,45, 545 votes, while Nikam’s run stopped at 4,29, 031 and NOTA being the third highest votes taker at 9,749 votes.

As per a BJP worker outside the counting centre, if Nikam had got a substantial lead of over 70,000 votes in BJP bastions in initial phases like Poonam Mahajan got in 2019, Gaikwad would not have been able to cover the same in the last rounds of counting.

During the campaign, BJP portrayed Nikam as the prosecutor and a “patriot”, who fought the case against Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, Gaikwad focused on issue-based campaigning.

Speaking to media outside the NESCO counting centre at Goregaon amid cheering by her supporters, Gaikwad a four-time MLA and former state cabinet minister said the credit to her win goes to the “power of people and hard work by party workers”.

MUMBAI NORTH WEST

The Mumbai North West Parliamentary constituency witnessed a nail-biting contest, with Shiv Sena (Shinde) candidate Ravindra Waikar narrowly edging out his opponent and Shiv Sena UBT candidate Amol Kirtikar during the recounting of votes where he appeared to have 48 more votes.

Earlier, the recounting was requested by Waikar since Kirtikar appeared to have polled marginally more votes than him. It was during the recounting that Waikar edged past Kirtikar by 48 votes. On recounting, Waikar appeared to have secured 5,42,644 votes while Kirtikar got 4,52,596 votes.

Amol, whose father Gajanan was the two-term sitting MP from the seat and had switched allegiance to the Shinde Sena, was considered a strong contender for victory.

Both candidates faced ED cases, and Kirtikar was served summons in the khichdi scam just days after being announced as the MVA candidate from the seat. Historically, the North West constituency has swung between Sena and Congress. Over the past four decades, Congress has clinched this seat seven times, while Sena secured it four times.

Although Congress was not in the race, its cadre collaborated with Sena UBT in the factional feud against the Shinde-led Sena. After voting concluded, Shinde Sena and BJP leaders alleged that Gajanan Kirtikar favored his son over the party candidate, Waikar. Gajanan refuted these allegations.