Manda Vijay Mhatre of the BJP emerged victorious after a tense 28 rounds of counting | Farooq Ahmed
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched the Belapur Assembly seat in a dramatic contest in Maharashtra. Manda Vijay Mhatre of the BJP emerged victorious after a tense 28 rounds of counting, narrowly defeating Sandeep Ganesh Naik of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar (NCPSP) by 377 votes.
Throughout the counting process, Mhatre and Naik exchanged leads, with both candidates briefly ahead at different points. However, Mhatre regained the lead in the 27th round and ultimately secured the win.
This is the third consecutive year that Mhatre has won the seat at Belapur Constituency. In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Manda Vijay Mhatre of the BJP won by a margin of 43,549 votes (24.95% of the total votes cast), defeating Ashok Ankush Gawade of the NCP. The BJP secured 50.34% of the vote share in Belapur that year. Meanwhile, in 2014 also, Mhatre triumphed in Belapur, narrowly defeating Ganesh Naik of the NCP by a margin of 1,491 votes (0.78% of the total votes). The BJP’s vote share was 29.07% in 2014.
This year, Belapur Constituency had a total of 15 candidates fighting for the MLA seat including rebel candidate Vijay Nahata from Shinde group who secured 19,646 votes. NAhata cut into the votes of Naik which benefitted Mhatre.
Of the total 4.23 lakh votes of the Belapur constituency, 2.34 lakh (55.24%) voters had turned up for voting on November 20. The voters who turned up included 54.77% male, 55.78% female and 15.79% others.
“My win is the result of the tireless work that my party workers did day and night inspite of the threats and defamations by the opposition. It is the result of the faith that people have shown in me. Its my work that has spoken with the public that has helped me won for the third consecutive year,” Mhatre said.
