Maharashtra polls: No room for women in the House? Tally drops to 22

PUNE: For an election fought primarily on women's empowerment issues, largely the Ladki Bahin Scheme, only 8.8% women candidates were in the fray, and even fewer have won. Just 22 will be a part of the new assembly, down from 24 in 2019, reports Salonee Mistry. Of the 55 women fielded by the two major blocs, 21 Mahayuti faces and one MVA nominee won.

In Pune, Parvati saw a tough fight between two women - BJP's Madhuri Misal and NCP (SP)'s Ashwini Kadam. Misal secured the seat with 1,18,193 votes, winning with a margin of 54,660.

Other winners included NCP's Aditi Tatkare, who won in Shrivardhan with 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 Gavit in Sakri.

Only one woman from the opposition alliance won - Congress' Jyothi Gaikwad in Dharavi constituency.

With 88% Strike Rate, Party Wins 15 Of 17 Contested

MUMBAI: BJP emerged as the Big Brother in Mumbai, winning 15 of the 17 seats it contested. The party got one seat less than its 2019 victory tally of 16 seats. Shiv Sena (UBT), which faced a wipeout in most of the state, managed to win 10 seats out of the 22 it contested in the city. The party won 20 seats in Maharashtra, so half of their wins came from Mumbai. Sena's (UBT) lone Muslim candidate, Haroon Khan, won from Versova, defeating BJP's sitting MLA Bharti Lavekar. Shiv Sena, led by CM Eknath Shinde, won six seats. It fought 15 seats. Congress, which contested on 10 seats, only managed to win three, down from four sitting MLAs in 2019. NCP (SP) fought two seats in Mumbai and lost both, while the Ajit Pawar-NCP contested two seats and won one - Sana Malik from Anushakti Nagar. MNS failed to bag any seat in Mumbai; in fact, its chief Raj Thackeray's son, Amit, lost from Mahim seat.

BJP's Sanjay Upadhaya bagged the Borivli seat with 1,00,057 votes, the highest winning margin in Mumbai, defeating Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Bhosale. BJP's Mihir Kotecha won Mulund seat by over a 90,000 vote margin. This was nearly 50% more margin than in the Lok Sabha elections from Mulund constituency in May, when he had a 61,000 lead. In Malabar Hill, BJP's Mangal Prabhat Lodha won his 7th election, the only candidate to hold that record in this constituency. He swept the elections with 1,01,197 votes and, with that, garnered the highest vote share of 73.4% among all constituencies of Mumbai.

Among other high-profile seats, BJP's Ashish Shelar (Bandra West), Ameet Satam (Andheri West), and Rahul Narwekar (Colaba) got big wins. The Shinde-led Sena lost key seats to Sena (UBT) like Worli, where Aaditya Thackeray won, and Mahim, where Mahesh Sawant defeated sitting MLA Sada Sarvankar. Sena (UBT)'s Varun Sardesai won from Bandra East defeating NCP's Zeeshan Siddique. SP's Abu Azmi won Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar seat defeating NCP's Nawab Malik. Some of the Sena's candidates who joined from BJP just before the polls, like Shaina NC (Mumbadevi), lost, while Murji Patel (Andheri East) won.

Bhandup West witnessed the highest voting percentage at nearly 62.9%, and it was a close contest between Ramesh Korgaonkar of Sena UBT and Ashok Patil of Shiv Sena. While the former was leading during the first 11 rounds, giving an impression that he might easily get re-elected, the tables turned from the 12th round, as Patil surpassed him for the next 9 rounds and won by 6,764 votes.

Ghatkopar West seat saw a close fight between three-time BJP MLA Ram Kadam and Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Bhalerao. Kadam won the seat with a margin of 12,971 votes.

The richest candidate in the fray, BJP's Parag Shah, won the second consecutive term with 34,999 votes in Ghatkopar (East). In Kurla, Mangesh Kudalkar of Shiv Sena won his third term by overcoming a tough challenge by Pravina Morajkar of UBT.