Mumbai: Three former corporators from the city, who were among nearly a dozen contenders vying for MLA seats in the recently concluded elections, succeeded, while several others lost.
Shiv Sena nominee Murji Patel won the Andheri East seat against incumbent Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Rutuja Latke by 25,486 votes. Patel had recently quit BJP to contest the assembly elections on a Sena ticket.Manoj Jamsutkar secured a large win in Byculla, defeating Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Yamini Panchal by 31,361 votes, while Anant Nar won against Manisha Waikar in Jogeshwari with a slim margin of 1,541 votes. Waikar, wife of incumbent Mumbai North West MP Ravindra Waikar, was also nominated by Shiv Sena.
Jamsutkar, who was a BMC corporator from 2012 to 2017 and also a ward committee chairman, said his accessibility and availability to the public is what paid off. “As a ward committee chairman in 2015, I regularly sat in the E ward office, where people approached me with their concerns…This commitment is reflected in the margin of my election victory. My wife also served as a corporator from 2017 to 2022, and together, we have consistently been accessible as elected representatives even after our tenure ended,” he said.
Haroon Khan, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s sole Muslim candidate from city, won the Versova seat against two-term BJP MLA Bharati Lavekar operated almost like a corporator from 2017 to 2022 as his wife Shahida contested and won the BMC elections from Versova after the seat was reserved for a woman candidate.
However, several others, including Sena (UBT)’s Raju Pednekar, who contested as an Independent against Khan in Versova, lost, polling just 6,752 votes.
Vinod Shelar, a former BMC education committee chairman and brother of BJP chief Ashish Shelar, lost the Malad assembly seat to incumbent MLA Aslam Shaikh by 6,227 votes. Vinod said, “We failed in the elections by a few votes, but we have succeeded in winning hearts. I express my gratitude to each and every voter of Malad West who voted for me and accept the responsibility of their expectations.”
Former Mumbai mayor Shraddha Jadhav, who contested from Wadala against BJP’s Kalidas Kolamkar; Sandeep Deshpande of MNS, who was the party leader in BMC in 2012-17; and former NCP leader in BMC Rakhi Jadhav from Ghatkopar also faced defeats against incumbents. In Bandra West, three-term former corporator and Congress nominee Asif Zakaria lost to BJP’s two-term MLA Ashish Shelar.