Shiv Sena’s vote share in Assembly seats rises

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena may have lost the just held Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll, but it managed to get more votes in the Assembly seats falling under the parliamentary constituency when compared to the 2014 Maharashtra elections.

The Sena got over 60,000 more votes, while despite winning the seat, the BJP saw its vote count dropping in the tribal-dominated constituency. Sena candidate Shrinivas Wanga lost to BJP nominee Rajendra Gavit by a margin of 29,572 votes in the byelection held on May 28. The result in the tribal-reserved Lok Sabha seat located adjoining Mumbai was declared on May 31.

The Palghar bypoll was necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MP Chintaman Wanga.

A comparison of the total votes polled in the six Assembly seats of the Palghar Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 state elections to that of the Lok Sabha bypoll held last month shows the Sena's vote share has gone up in the area.

The Sena did not fight the April-May 2014 Lok Sabha poll from Palghar as part of its seat-sharing arrangement with the ally BJP, which won the seat. However, there was no alliance between them for the October 2014 Assembly polls. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party had contested all the six Assembly seats falling under the Lok Sabha constituency - Dahanu (ST), Vikramgad (ST), Palghar (ST), Boisar (ST), Vasai and Nalasopara. Of these, the Sena won just one Assembly seat - Palghar (ST).

The Sena had polled a total of 1,82,343 votes in the six seats in 2014, while in the May 28 Lok Sabha bypoll, the party candidate secured 2,43,210 votes in these segments, a rise of 60,867 votes compared to the state polls held four years back.

Interestingly, the BJP suffered a loss in the voting percentage though it managed win the Lok Sabha seat. In 2014, the BJP got 5,33,201 votes in the Palghar Lok Sabha election, while in the recent bypoll, it got 2,72,782 votes, a decline of 2,60,419 votes.