City NCP chief Nawab Malik wins back Anushakti Nagar from Sena

The Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) city unit chief Nawab Malik won the Anushakti Nagar constituency from the Shiv Sena, defeating sitting MLA Tukaram Kate by

The Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) city unit chief Nawab Malik won the Anushakti Nagar constituency from the Shiv Sena, defeating sitting MLA Tukaram Kate by 12,748 votes. Malik had lost the seat to Kate in the 2014 Assembly elections.

HT Image

Malik was leading from the first round, a trend that continued till the last round. Anushakti Nagar is the only Assembly seat across Mumbai that the NCP managed to win. The constituency is a minority-dominated pocket that covers the areas of Trombay, Cheetah Camp, BARC, Govandi station East and West, Deonar village, Vashinaka, Sahyadri nagar and Maharashtra Nagar, among others.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, the constituency saw a close fight between Kate (39,966 votes) and Malik (38,959 votes). Political analyst Hemant Desai said the alliance with the Congress benefited the NCP. “In the previous Assembly polls, the Congress candidate had split the vote share, resulting in Malik’s defeat,” he said.

Minority-dominated areas such as Cheetah Camp and Govandi saw a rise in voting this election. For instance, Cheetah Camp saw 55% voting, from 27% in 2014. This also seems to have worked in Malik’s favour.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s Vijay Raorane got 5,879 votes, while 2,290 people voted for NOTA (none of the above). Kate said: “This time, the votes were polled on a communal basis, which led to my defeat.”