Maharashtra election results: Uddhav Thackeray’s candidates lost by slender margins, BJP won big

Lowest margin victories

In Mumbai, of the 12 MLAs who won with a margin of fewer than 10,000 votes, seven are from Shiv Sena (UBT). This includes Aaditya Thackeray, who secured a landslide victory with a margin of 67,427 votes in 2019. The narrowest win was in Jogeshwari East, where the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate triumphed by just 1,316 votes. In comparison, only four MLAs had won with such narrow margins in the last election. Meanwhile, all the candidates with the highest winning margins are from the BJP.

Mumbai has 36 Assembly constituencies, and five MLAs - all from the BJP - secured victories with margins exceeding 50,000 votes. However, in one-third of the constituencies, the winning margin was less than 10,000 votes. Among these 12 constituencies, seven are represented by Shiv Sena (UBT). Aaditya Thackeray narrowly defeated Milind Deora of Shiv Sena by just 8,801 votes this time. Sandeep Deshpande of MNS garnered 19,367 votes in the same constituency.

Notably, veteran MLAs such as Ajay Choudhari, Sunil Prabhu, and Sanjay Potnis held onto their constituencies in closely contested battles. Choudhari, who had won in 2014 and 2019 with margins of over 40,000 votes, secured his seat this time with a margin of 7,140 votes. Sunil Prabhu, who previously won by a margin of 45,000 votes, managed to retain his seat with an edge of just 6,182 votes. Similarly, Sanjay Potnis made it through with a margin of 5,008 votes. Other razor-thin victories include Bala Nar from Jogeshwari East, Haroon Khan from Versova, and Mahesh Sawant from Mahim, all of whom won with margins under 1,600 votes.

In contrast, the five MLAs with the highest winning margins - all from the BJP - dominated the results. Sanjay Upadhyay from Borivli reclaimed his seat with a margin exceeding 1 lakh votes. Yogesh Sagar from Charkop and Atul Bhatkhalkar from Kandivli East also won decisively, with margins of over 90,000 votes.

In the previous election, over 10 MLAs had won with margins exceeding 50,000 votes, including eight from the BJP and two from Shiv Sena - Aaditya Thackeray and Ravindra Waikar. Notably, only four MLAs had won with margins under 10,000 votes in 2019.