The State Election Commission on Tuesday pegged the final voter turnout for the Lok Sabha elections held in Mumbai on Monday at 55.35 per cent. Borivali assembly segment in Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency, it said, recorded the highest turnout of 66.19 per cent, while Colaba, in Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency, recorded the lowest voter turnout of 45.16 per cent. Each of the six Lok Sabha constituencies in Mumbai comprises six Assembly segments. While the voting in most of the Assembly segments was higher than that recorded in 2014, in at least eight Assembly segments the turnout witnessed a decline. Four of these segments were in Mumbai South, while the remaining three in Mumbai South Central. Click here for more election news The decline in turnout was maximum in Muslim and Dalit dominated pockets of Bandra West, Byculla and Dharavi. Meanwhile, Gujarati-dominated areas showed a huge spike in voting percentage with Borivali polling the highest at 66.19, Mulund at 63.66, Ghatkopar (East) at 61.27 and Vile Parle at 61.19. After Colaba Assembly segment, the lowest turnout was recorded in Mankhurd-Shivajinagar at 47.08 per cent, Dharavi 48.09 per cent, Mumbadevi 48.33 per cent and Versova 48.56 per cent. Leaders from across political parties claimed that one of the reason for a higher voter turnout, as compared to 2014 general election, could be due to deletion of around 3.86 lakh names from electoral rolls across Mumbai, except Mumbai South Lok Sabha seat. Besides, they said, people seemed to have rallied behind the candidates from their community. In five constituencies, there was a spike of over eight percentage points in the polling against last year. The highest spike was in Dahisar, with a major presence of Gujaratis. Voting here increased by over 10 percentage points as compared to last year. The same was the case with the Gujarati pockets in Borivali, which saw a spike of 8.89 percentage points. Constituencies like Anushakti Nagar (9.39 percentage points), which has a strong Dalit-Muslim population, as well as Chandivali (8.2 percentage points) also saw a spike in polling. In the 17 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls across Maharashtra in the fourth phase, poll percentage of 57.32 was recorded.
