Andheri East bypoll: No surprise in Latke victory, but runner-up NOTA the scene-stealer

“The NOTA voters in 2019 seem to be traditional voters who choose NOTA as a means of protest. But it seems that the remaining (NOTA) voters (this time) chose NOTA for political vendetta to mobilise voters against Latke. Three kinds of voters might have opted for NOTA. First, those who did not see any viable alternative from the contesting candidates voted NOTA as a protest. Second, the hardcore BJP and RSS supporters may have chosen NOTA since there was no BJP candidate. And third may have been the supporters and sympathisers of Murji Patel who were upset with the BJP as the party asked him to withdraw his nomination and they campaigned for NOTA,” said Sanjay Patil, a political analyst.

After the results were declared, Shiv Sena alleged that voters were paid to choose NOTA and alluded to the role of “some parties” in attempting to ensure that Latke’s victory was “disgraced and dishonourable”. Hitting out at the BJP, Uddhav Thackeray said, “It is clear that there was a use of notes in the elections … there was campaigning for NOTA. Had the BJP contested the election, the party would have got the same number of votes as NOTA.”

Latke also claimed that the BJP withdrew their candidate after realising that he would lose and hence the NOTA campaign was launched.

“The BJP knew that they would get the same number of votes as NOTA, so they withdrew from the polls stating tradition but later campaigned for NOTA,” Latke said.

The BJP denied the allegations and claimed it had nothing to do with the high number of NOTA votes polled. Congratulating Latke, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar claimed the Uddhav Sena candidate won only because of his party’s help and had the BJP contested she would have lost. “The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) did not mobilise more votes. Had BJP contested the bypoll, the Shiv Sena candidate would have lost. So, Shiv the Sena (UBT) should realise that Latke’s win is with the help of BJP,” Shelar said.

Murji Patel said the low turnout on polling day (November 3) — almost 1.9 lakh voters did not vote — indicated public anger with Uddhav and his party. “There is dissatisfaction and unrest among the public against Thackeray and the Sena led by him. So, almost 70 per cent of voters did not turn up for voting and almost 15 per cent chose NOTA. There is no point in blaming us if people are choosing to vote NOTA,” Patel said.

Along with Latke, six other independents and candidates from small parties were in the fray but their total vote share was far less than the NOTA vote share. While these candidates managed to receive only 7,122 votes of the 86,198 votes polled, 12,721 votes chose NOTA.

Sena leader and MLC Anil Parab who alerted the Election Commission (EC) and local police about alleged campaigning and distribution of money to voters to choose for NOTA in the by-poll said this was the victory of Shiv Sainiks and showed that Mumbaikars were with Uddhav Thackeray.

“This is a victory of Mumbaikars, the Shiv Sena and the MVA. I had raised with the EC and the local police the issue of distribution of money by a few Opposition party workers to voters. The voters were told to choose NOTA. But no action was taken even after I provided evidence like audio clips and videos of the workers and their identities. So, I think all those votes for NOTA were the Opposition party’s votes,” Parab said.