Aaditya leads saffron surge in Mumbai, big guns register easy wins

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray led the surge of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena in Mumbai, with the saffron combine winning 30 of 36 assembly

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray led the surge of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena in Mumbai, with the saffron combine winning 30 of 36 assembly seats, one more than in 2014.

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Thackeray won his debut assembly election (from Worli) by a margin of 67,427 votes. The 29-year-old is the first member from the Thackeray family to contest an election.

The Sena won a total of six seats in the eastern suburbs, four in the western suburbs, and four in the Island city. The Sena retained the same number of seats (14) as 2014. While the party lost two Assembly seats – Bandra East and Anushakti Nagar – it won two new ones, Byculla and Chandivali. Sena’s Dilip Lande wrested Chandivali from two-time Congress MLA Mohammad Arif Khan, by 409 votes. In Byculla, Sena’s Yamini Jadhav put up a tough fight against sitting AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan and former Congress MLA Madhu Chavan, and won the seat by a margin of 23,020 votes.

The Sena retained the prestigious Mahim seat -- the constituency houses the party’s headquarters, Shiv Sena Bhavan, and Shivaji Park, where the party was born -- with Sada Sarvankar winning against MNS’s Sandeep Deshpande by 18,647 votes. The Mahim seat has been with the Shiv Sena since the 1990s, except in 2009, when the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) emerged a winner in the constituency.

ISLAND CITY

BJP candidate Kalidas Kolambkar was re-elected for the eighth time from Wadala, becoming the longest serving legislator in Mumbai. He won by 30,845 votes. He has been winning irrespective of the party he represents and has won previously as a Shiv Sena and Congress candidate.

Congress’s Amin Patel retained the Mumbadevi seat by a margin of 23,655 votes against Shiv Sena’s Pandurang Sakpal. BJP’s Rahul Narvekar won from Colaba. In Dharavi, Congress candidate Varsha Gaikwad retained the seat by a margin of 11,824 votes, securing her fourth term.

Despite internal dissidence and non-cooperation from the Shiv Sena, BJP candidate Tamil Selvan won from Sion-Koliwada by a margin of 13,921 votes. In Malabar Hill, BJP city unit chief Mangal Prabhat Lodha won by 71,872 votes.

WESTERN SUBURBS

In the Bandra West seat, BJP’s Ashish Shelar won by a margin of 26,507 votes against three-time corporator Asif Zakaria of the Congress. The constituency has a huge number of Muslim voters, and was a Congress bastion until 2014, when Shelar won the seat, defeating Congress’s Baba Siddique. The BJP also won the Dahisar and Vile Parle seat comfortably.

All sitting MLAs in Magathane, Kandivali East and Charkop – Shiv Sena’s Prakash Surve and BJP’s Atul Bhatkhalkar and Yogesh Sagar – retained their seats.

In Andheri East, sitting Sena MLA Ramesh Latke won by a margin of 16,965 votes, defeating independent candidate and BJP rebel Murji Patel. In Andheri West, sitting MLA and BJP candidate Ameet Satam won with a comfortable margin of 18,962 votes.

Versova witnessed a close fight between sitting MLA from BJP Bharati Lavekar, Sena rebel and independent candidate Rajul Patel and Congress’s former three-term MLA Baldev Khosa. Lavekar got 41,057 votes, while Khosa got 35,871 votes and Patel 32,706 votes.

In Dahisar, a stronghold of the BJP, sitting MLA Manisha Chaudhary from the BJP won by a margin of 63,917 votes against Arun Sawant of the Congress. In Vile Parle, sitting MLA of BJP Parag Alavani won by a margin of 58,427 votes against Jayanti Siroya of the Congress.

CENTRAL-EASTERN SUBURBS

Even with new faces, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance managed to retain seats in some of the eastern suburbs – Ghatkopar East, Mulund and Bhandup West – with significant margins. In Mulund, BJP’s Mihir Kotecha won by 63,399 votes against MNS candidate Harshala Chavan. Maharashtra’s richest MLA candidate Parag Shah of BJP secured 73,054 votes against MNS’s Satish Pawar

Dropping its sitting MLA in Bhandup West, the Shiv Sena gave its ticket to four-time corporator Ramesh Korgaonkar, who secured 71, 955 votes and won against MNS’s Sandeep Jalgaonkar. The Sena’s Sunil Raut in Vikhroli (62,795 votes) and BJP’s Ram Kadam in Ghatkopar West (70,263 votes) retained their seats.

There was no surprise in Mankhurd and Chembur Assembly constituencies. Two-term MLA and Samajwadi Party’s state president Abu Azmi retained the seat, winning 69,082 votes, defeating Sena’s Vithal Lokare (43, 481 votes). Similarly, Sena’s Prakash Phaterpekar retained his seat, winning 53,264 votes, defeating former minister and Congress candidate Chandrakant Handore (34,246 votes).

The Shiv Sena managed to retain both its Kurla and Kalina constituencies.