Mumbai: Tight races and unexpected outcomes marked the polls in the city, with several incumbent MLAs securing narrower victories compared to their 2019 performance. Five sitting MLAs faced particularly challenging contests before emerging victorious.
Of the 32 sitting MLAs who sought re-election in Mumbai (which has 36 assembly constituencies), 25 retained their seats.While nine improved their victory margins, others witnessed reductions (see graphic).
Shiv Sena’s Mangesh Kudalkar from Kurla experienced an 80% reduction in his winning margin, dropping from 21,013 in 2019 to 4,187. The constituency’s demographic mix of 38% Marathi-speaking and 32% Muslim voters, coupled with Sena (UBT) fielding former corporator Pravina Morajkar, created a competitive environment. In Worli, Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray’s victory margin decreased substantially from 67,427 in 2019 to 8,801 against Shiv Sena’s Milind Deora, a former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP backed by CM Eknath Shinde.
Vikhroli, considered to be a bastion of Sena UBT for two terms, once again elected Sunil Raut as their MLA. But the going was not as smooth as last time for him; Raut faced a political fight from former party colleague and grassroots worker Suvarna Karanje, who had switched allegiance to Shiv Sena and was pitted against him. His margin plunged 44%.
In Dindoshi, Sunil Prabhu, suffered a loss in margin from 44,511 in 2019 to 6,182 against Sena’s Sanjay Nirupam. An analyst said Nirupam gave a “tough fight” despite BJP not campaigning for him. Sena UBT’s Ajay Choudhari in Sewri saw his margin decrease from 40,000 to 7,140 against MNS’s Bala Nandgaonkar. Similarly, Malad MLA Aslam Shaikh’s margin dropped from 10,383 to 6,227.
Conversely, some MLAs improved their performance. Chandivli’s Dilip Lande increased his margin from 409 to 20,625 votes, attributed to grassroots engagement and successful implementation of the Ladki Bahin scheme. BJP’s Rahul Narwekar in Colaba tripled his margin to 48,581 votes. At 45, he became India’s youngest state legislature Speaker and was tasked by SC to address Shiv Sena’s disqualification petitions in May 2023.
For BJP’s Mihir Kotecha, voters from Mulund’s high-rises boosted the victory margin: he won by over 90,000 votes. Then, in Mumbadevi, MLA Amin Patel said he worked relentlessly in his constituency, especially improving education and health needs of voters, which helped him gain a better margin this time than in 2019.