November 17th 2024.
As the date of Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 draws near, the excitement and anticipation among the citizens of Mumbai are palpable. The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 23, and all eyes are on the battle between the two major alliances - Mahayuti and MVA. This will be the first direct face-off between the two since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and the campaigns have already come to a close with the high-profile election rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in Mumbai, the bustling capital city.
Mumbai, with its 36 assembly constituencies, holds immense importance in the upcoming elections. These constituencies include both the city and its suburbs, with key areas such as Dahisar, Borivali, Malad, Kandivali, Goregaon, Bandra, Andheri, and Jogeshwari in the western suburbs, and Mulund, Bhandup, Ghatkopar, Chembur, and Kurla in the eastern suburbs. One of the most fiercely contested seats in Mumbai is Mulund, which falls under the Mumbai North East Lok Sabha constituency.
For the past 24 years, Mulund has been under the leadership of the BJP, with prominent leaders such as Vamanrao Parab, Kirit Somaiya, Sardar Tara Singh, and Mihir Kotecha representing the constituency. Tara Singh, in particular, has been a four-term MLA from Mulund and is well-known in the area. In the 2019 elections, Kotecha replaced Tara Singh as the BJP candidate and successfully retained his seat. He has been nominated again by the party to contest the upcoming elections as a part of the Mahayuti alliance, while the MVA has fielded Congress' Rakesh Shetty.
Another key constituency in Mumbai is Dahisar, where the BJP's Manisha Chaudhary has been on a winning streak since 2014. However, with the sympathy votes for the UBT's Vinod Ghosalkar, who is challenging Chaudhary this time, the battle is expected to be tough.
Taking a look at the past poll statistics, Sardar Tara Singh has been the undisputed MLA from Mulund from 1990 to 2014, defeating Congress' Charan Singh Sapra with a margin of over 65,000 votes in the 2014 elections. In 2019, Kotecha continued the BJP's winning streak by defeating MNS' Harshala Chavan with a margin of over 57,000 votes.
During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Mulund was a part of the Mumbai North East constituency, which also includes Vikhroli, Ghatkopar West, Ghatkopar East, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, and Bhandup West. In this election, Kotecha was nominated by the BJP to contest against former MP Sanjay Dina Patil of the Shiv Sena UBT, but was unsuccessful. Patil emerged victorious with over 4.5 lakh votes, while Kotecha received over 4.2 lakh votes, with over 1 lakh votes coming from the Mulund assembly constituency alone.
Mulund is not a reserved seat and is open to general category candidates. In the 2019 assembly elections, there were a total of 2,87,173 registered voters in the constituency, with a voter turnout of 53.84%. As the battle for Mulund heats up once again in the upcoming elections, all eyes are on the key players and their strategies to secure victory in this crucial seat.
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