Meanwhile, former Thane Guardian Minister and NCP’s strongman in the region Ganesh Naik ended up losing his Belapur seat to BJP’s Manda Mhatre by 1,491 votes in a closely fought battle. His son managed to hold onto his Airoli seat.
BJP gained ground at Shiv Sena’s expense, especially in Ambernath, Thane and Kalyan seats. In Thane, BJP’s Mukund Kelkar beat Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Pathak by a margin of 12,588 votes. Shiv Sena’s Balaji Kinikar managed to retain his Ambernath seat, but not without losing most of his voter base to BJP’s Rajesh Wankhede.
MNS incumbents Prakash Bhoir and Ramesh Patil lost their seats to Shiv Sena and BJP in Kalyan West and Kalyan Rural constituencies respectively. The strong anti-incumbency wave is thought to be responsible for that.
Muslim dominated Bhiwandi East and West seats fell into BJP’s lap mainly due to division of Muslim votes, caused by the presence of parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Samajwadi Party.
At 50.61 per cent, Thane district had witnessed one of the lowest voter turnout in the entire state, with constituencies like Ulhasnagar polling as low as 38.22 per cent. The low turnout seems to have benefited the BJP, whose committed voter base of Brahmins, Gujratis and South Indians voted anyway.
Ravindra Chavan of BJP won by a comfortable margin of 46,225 in its Dombivli stronghold. NCP’s Jitendra Awhad also won easily in Mumbra-Kalwa constituency despite a resurgent AIMIM. Shiv Sena’s Thane district chief Eknath Shinde retained his Kopri-Pachpakhdi seat, as he defeated his immediate opponent by 51,869 votes.
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