Mumbai: The ensuing Maharashtra assembly elections are the first direct battle between the Mahayuti and MVA after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The campaigns have reached their final stages, and PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have also conducted election rallies in Mumbai. Being the capital city, the battle to lead in Mumbai is what any political party wants.
Mumbai has 36 assembly constituencies, including Mumbai city and suburbs. Some of the key constituencies in the western suburbs include Dahisar, Borivali, Kandivali, Bandra, Andheri and Jogeshwari, and key constituencies in the eastern suburbs are Mulund, Bhandup, Ghatkopar and Kurla.
The battle in Mumbai’s Dahisar
Dahisar (153) assembly constituency is part of the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency along with five others, namely Borivali, Magathane Kandivali East, Charkop and Malad West. Mumbai North is a bastion of the BJP. Out of six assembly seats here, except Magathane (Shiv Sena) and Malad West (Congress), all four assembly seats are led by the BJP.
Since 2014, the Dahisar assembly seat has been represented by BJP’s Manisha Chaudhary and the party has renominated Chaudhary for the 2024 polls. Before Chaudhary, the seat was led by undivided Shiv Sena’s Vinod Ghosalkar.
Against sitting MLA Manisha Chaudhary, the Mahayuti candidate, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded ex-MLA Vinod Ghosalkar. Notably, the Ghosalkar family was in the news this year after his son and former corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar was shot dead. He was the victim of local political rivalry. Thus, Vinod Ghosalkar who is also been a former minister, has a chance of winning the seat, amid the sympathy wave.
Past Poll Statistics
In 2014, BJP’s Manisha Chaudhary won against sitting Shiv Sena (undivided) MLA Vinod Ghosalkar with a margin of 38,578 votes. In 2019, Chaudhary won against Congress’ Arun Sawant with a margin of 63,917 votes.
In 2014 and 2019 Raj Thackeray’s MNA had fielded its candidates from Dahisar. However, for 2024 MNS has not fielded any candidate, making it a direct fight between BJP and Sena (UBT).
Dahisar constituency's poll stats during 2019 assembly electionsConstituency’s Performance In 2024 Lok Sabha Polls
Dahisar assembly constituency is part of the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency along with five others, namely Borivali, Magathane Kandivali East, Charkop and Malad West. Out of this, except Magathane (Shiv Sena) and Malad West (Congress), all four assembly seats are led by the BJP.
The seat is the bastion of the BJP and in the 2024 Lok Sabha, Union Minister Piyush Goyal was elected as the MP, defeating Bhushan Patil from Congress. Piyush Goyal got a total of 6,80,146 votes, of which the Dahisar assembly constituency gave him 1,08,419 votes. Bhushan Patil got 46,172 votes from Dahisar.
About Dahisar seat
Dahisar assembly seat is not a reserved seat and allotted for General Category candidates. During the 2019 assembly elections, the total number of registered voters in the Dahisar assembly seat were 2,55,297, of which 1,36,997 were male and 1,18,264 were female voters. 36 voters were third-gender voters. The voting percentage for this seat last assembly polls was 52.9 percent.
Current situation in Maharashtra Assembly
Currently, the ruling disposition, Mahayuti in Maharashtra has 202 MLAs with it. Out of these, BJP has 102 seats, NCP (Ajit Pawar) has 40, Shiv Sena (Shinde) has 38 and other parties have 24.
MVA has 69 seats in its kitty. Out of these, Congress has 37, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 16, NCP (Sharad Pawar) has 12 and other parties have six seats. Fifteen seats are vacant.