Voter turnout dips as Sena openly bats for BJP rebel

MIRA BHAYANDAR ASSEMBLY SEGMENT

After an extremely slow start, voting percentage in the Mira-Bhayandar (145) assembly constituency gradually picked up during the post morning session on Monday. Altogether 45.45 per cent including 1,09,833 male, 88, 863 female voters and one from the other category had exercised their franchise till 5pm. Polling began at 7am and ended at 6pm in this constituency, which is witnessing a triangular battle between sitting legislator Narendra Mehta (BJP), Congress strongman Muzaffar Hussain and BJP rebel Geeta Jain (Independent).

With an anticipated addition of 4 per cent till 6 pm, the turnout almost matches the 49.08 per cent polling recorded in this assembly segment during the Lok Sabha election in April this year. However, in 2014, the constituency had registered a turnout of 52.68 per cent. Apart from tray incidents of verbal duels between workers of political parties, the electioneering passed off peacefully with no untoward incidents being reported in the region amidst tight security by the Thane (rural) police.

The BJP workers faced opposition from rival parties for violating the model code of conduct by sporting Tshirts printed with a slogan, which was widely used by them during campaigning.

Interestingly, despite an alliance between both the alliance partners, a large number of Shiv-Sainiks and a section of BJP’s own leaders had openly come out in support of BJP’s rebel and former mayor Geeta Jain, who contested the election as an independent candidate with bat as her symbol.