Three of Mumbai's constituencies saw a drop in the lead margins, compared to the 2014 general elections
Manoj Kotak in North East, Arvind Sawant in Mumbai South and Poonam Mahajan in North Central, won with reduced winning margins, as compared to 2014
The general elections in 2019 saw the NDA win big. But in Mumbai, three of six constituencies had a different story to tell even with alliance candidates winning, as their lead margins were reduced. The constituencies of North East, South Mumbai and North Central, saw their winning margins reduced, as compared to the elections in 2014.
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The North East constituency, one of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) strong holds with a majority of Gujarati speaking people, had a new candidate, Manoj Kotak, instead of sitting MP Kirit Somaiya. In the 2014 contest, the winning margin here between the BJP and Nationalist Congress Party was 3.17 lakh votes, which in 2019 came down to 2.26 lakh. Sources revealed that the change in candidate could have been one of the reasons for the reduction in the winning margin.
Voters shifting is the reason?
Shiv Sena candidate, Arvind Sawant in Mumbai South, won with a margin of one lakh votes this time against Congress candidate Milind Deora. In 2014 Sawant had defeated Deora with a margin of 1.28 lakh. A senior Shiv Sena leader said, "In the past five years the voting list was updated and many of our vote bank members have moved to other places. And as the difference is not much in the win margin, we are sure it will not affect the Assembly polls. However, we will now study the dynamics of the votes secured by us and accordingly work for the Assembly polls."
Rise in percentage, not margin
There was an increase in voting turnout percentage in the city and even the North Central constituency saw an increase in voter turnout. But the votes don't seem to have translated only in favour of BJP. The constituency saw the percentage of voters rise from 48.67% to 53.67%, but the winning margin between BJP candidate Poonam Mahajan and Congress candidate Priya Dutt was reduced despite this. The margin in 2014 was 1.86 lakh votes and this time it was 1.30 lakh votes.
Santosh Pradhan, political editor of Loksatta, said, "The margin mainly depends on the voter turnout. If the turnout has increased from last time, then we have to consider the anti-incumbency factor and also the anger of local people towards candidates, which could also be one of the reasons. Mumbai always votes for one party, if we see the trend of several years."
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