BMC polls: Western suburbs gave BJP its edge over Shiv Sena

Though the Shiv Sena dominated its former ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by winning more seats in the island city and in the eastern suburbs, the latter had an edge in the western suburbs, securing 1.2 lakh more votes. About 55.95% of the BJP’s total votes came from the western suburbs, in which Marathi, Gujarati and north Indian voters are dominant.

The Shiv Sena managed to earn 28.78% of 22.90 lakh votes polled in western suburbs, whereas 33.29% of the total votes were scored by BJP. While the 5.64% of voters in the western suburbs voted for the Maharastra Navnirman Sena (MNS), it failed to win a single seat there.

The BJP came out strong in this area, as it heavily dented Marathi votes. The Shiv Sena suffered a setback owing to a loss of seats in its strongholds such as Goregaon, Jogeshwari and Andheri. The BJP dominated the votes, winning with a margin of more than 1,000 votes in a majority of Shiv Sena strongholds.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won two seats but got only 2.68% of the total votes polled in the western suburbs.

“We won more seats in the western suburbs as we have more MLAs there,” said a BJP officer from the western suburbs.

“About 45.66% of our total votes came from the western suburbs. It is not that we have fared badly there, but we must work on regaining our stronghold,” said a Shiv Sena leader, who did not wish to be identified.

The Shiv Sena has an upper hand over the BJP by thin margin of two seats and 51293 votes, despite having contested on 32 seats more. The Shiv Sena contested 227 seats and won 84, whereas the BJP contested from 195 seats and won 82.

The Shiv Sena was dominant in the island city — that comprises Marathi heartland areas such as Dadar, Mahim and Worli — with 30.45% of 12,75,741 votes polled here. The BJP came second with 23.08% of the votes.

While the Shiv Sena came out on top in the eastern suburbs, garnering 25.75% of the 15,37,309 votes polled here, which could have helped their number of seats go up to 84, the MNS played spoilsport by gaining 9.90% of the total votes polled here.

As much as 38.56% of the MNS’s votes came from the eastern suburbs, upsetting the Shiv Sena and the BJP’s plans.

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