Mumbai civic polls: Why Cong has cause for worry

NOT JUST the number of seats, even the vote share in Mumbai civic polls indicates that the Shiv Sena and the BJP are well ahead of the Congress.

Data released by the civic election department officials on Friday showed that one in two voters had cast their vote in favour of either the Shiv Sena or the BJP. According to the data, between them, the BJP and the Sena had accounted for 55 per cent of all votes polled in the election.

The Shiv Sena’s share of votes was 28.29 per cent, which translated into 14,43,969 votes. The BJP’S vote share, meanwhile, was 27.28 per cent or 13,92,676 votes. The Congress, on the other hand, ended up with a vote share of 15.93 per cent or 8,13,177 votes.

A high-voltage poll battle had

resulted in a near 11 per cent increase in polling in comparison to the 2012 civic election. In all, 51,03,913 voters cast their vote this time.

Overcoming the anti-incumbency factor, the Shiv Sena enhanced its vote share from 17.34 per cent in 2012 to 28.29 per cent this time. It added another 4.38 lakh votes to its tally this time. The vote gain saw the party’s tally rise from 75 to 84 this time.

But just like the number of seats, it was the BJP which took a huge stride in voting numbers. The party’s vote share was a meagre 6.78 per cent in 2012 when it had fought in alliance with the Sena. The massive jump in the votes polled saw the party pick up 82 seats this time. In 2012, its tally was just 30 seats.

In contrast, the Congress, which had polled 9,57,711 votes in 2012, managed just 8,13,177 votes this time. While the dip in vote share was just 0.32 percentage points — from 16.28 in 2012 to 15.93 in 2017 — this led to the party dropping 21 seats.

As anticipated, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena was the biggest loser even in the vote share race. MNS’S vote share declined from 15.89 per cent the last time to just 7.73 per cent this time. The Nationalist Congress Party fared worse, securing barely 4.85 per cent of all votes. Incidentally the election data also revealed that 87,719 voters had exercise the NOTA option.