PUNE: For an election largely centered around the issue of women empowerment, mainly the Ladki Bahin scheme, only 8.8 per cent women candidates contested and even fewer won. According to Salonee Mistry, the new conference will have only 22 participants, down from 24 in 2019. Of the 55 women fielded by the two major groups, 21 Mahayuti faces and one MVA nominee won.
In Pune, Parvati saw a fierce fight between two women – Madhuri Misal of the BJP and Ashwini Kadam of the National Communist Party (SP). Misal bagged the seat with 1,18,193 votes and won by a margin of 54,660 votes.
Other winners include NCP’s Aditi Tatkare who won in Shrivardhan by 1,16,050 votes, Sana Malik in Anushaktinagar, Saroj Ahire in Deolali, BJP’s Sneha Dubey Pandit in Vasai and Devayani Harande in Nashik Central, and Shiv Sena’s Manjula Gula Gula Sakri.
Only one woman from the opposition alliance won – Dharavi constituency MP Jyothi Gaikwad.
The party won 15 of the 17 contests with a margin of 88%
Mumbai: The BJP emerged as the big brother in Mumbai, winning 15 of the 17 seats contested. The party fell one seat short of the 16 it won in 2019. The Shiv Sena (UBT) faced a crushing defeat in most parts of the state but won 10 of the 22 seats in the city. The party won 20 seats in Maharashtra, so half of the victory came in Mumbai. Haroon Khan, the only Muslim candidate of the Sena Party (UBT), won from Versova, defeating the incumbent Bharti Lavekar of the PPP. Shiv Sena, led by CM Eknath Shinde, won six seats. It contested 15 seats. The Congress party contested 10 seats but won only three, down from four sitting MPs in 2019. War-NCP contested two seats and won one – Sana Malik from Anushakti Nagar. The MNS failed to win any seats in Mumbai; in fact, its leader Raj Thackeray’s son Amit lost his seat to Mahim.
BJP’s Sanjay Upadhaya defeated Sena’s Sanjay Bhosale by 1,00,057 votes to achieve Mumbai’s highest margin of victory, winning Borif Borivli seat. Mihir Kotecha of the BJP won the Mulund seat by a margin of over 90,000 votes. This is nearly 50% higher than the 61,000-vote lead in the Lok Sabha election in Mulund constituency in May. In Malabar Hills, the BJP’s Mangal Prabhat Lodha won the election for the seventh time, becoming the only candidate from the constituency to maintain this record. He won resoundingly with 1,01,197 votes, the highest vote share (73.4%) among all constituencies in Mumbai.
Among other high-profile seats, the BJP’s Ashish Sheral (Bandra West), Amit Sattam (Andheri West) and Rahul Naweka (Colaba) achieved a great victory. Shinde-led Sena lost key seats to Sena Party (UBT) such as Worli and Mahesh Sawant where Aaditya Thackeray won Mahim who defeated sitting MLA Sada Sarvankar. Sena (UBT)’s Varun Sardesai won from Bandra East defeating NCP’s Zeeshan Siddique. SP’s Abu Azmi defeated NCP’s Nawab Malik to win Mankurd-Shivaji Nagar seat. Some Sena candidates like Shaina NC (Mumbadevi) who joined the BJP before the polls lost, while Murji Patel (Andheri East) won.
Bhandup West had the highest vote share of nearly 62.9%, with a tight race between Sena UBT’s Ramesh Korgaonkar and Shiv Sena’s Ashok Patil. Although the former had been leading in the first 11 rounds, giving the impression that he could easily be re-elected, starting from the 12th round, the situation turned, and Patil surpassed him in the next 9 rounds, with 6,764 votes. Advantage wins.
Ghatkopar west seat witnessed a close contest between three-time BJP MP Ram Kadam and Sanjay Bhalerao of Sena (UBT). Kadam won the seat by a margin of 12,971 votes.
The richest candidate in the race, Parag Shah of the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a second consecutive term in Ghatkopar (East) with 34,999 votes. In Korla, Shiv Sena’s Mangesh Kudalkar overcame a stiff challenge from UBT’s Pravina Morajkar to win a third term.
