Mumbai: Byculla has handed out defeat to Shiv Sena candidate Yamini Jadhav for the second time this year. Almost six months after being defeated in Lok Sabha polls, Jadhav lost assembly elections to Manoj Jamsutkar of Shiv Sena (UBT) by 31,361 votes on Saturday.
Jadhav had contested LS election from Mumbai South against Arvind Sawant of Sena (UBT). Sawant had polled 86,883 votes from Byculla against Jadhav’s 40,817 votes. Jadhav had claimed the LS poll trend, when Muslim votes (around 40%) had consolidated behind MVA’s candidate, would change in assembly polls.
In 2019, Jadhav got 51,180 votes in polls to Byculla assembly, winning by 20,023 votes. But, AIMIM’s Waris Yusuf Pathan, with 31,157 votes, made her victory easy.
This election, Pathan contested from Bhiwandi West while AIMIM fielded Faiyyaz Ahmed from Byculla. Ahmed got 5,531 votes.
Jadhav perhaps hoped that Saeed Khan of Samajwadi Party could split some Muslim votes, but it did not happen. “After Saeed stopped campaigning in Byculla, Muslims aggressively consolidated behind Jamsutkar, giving him a good lead,” said former Congress MLA Yusuf Abrahani. The consolidation of a segment of Marathi votes and substantial Muslim votes helped Jamsutkar win this seat comfortably.
For Jamsutkar, a former corporator who had switched to Sena (UBT) from Congress, this victory is massive.