Mumbai Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: Arvind Sawant's Hat-Trick As Yamini Deceived By Her Own Assembly Constituency

Two-term member of parliament Arvind Sawant makes a hat-trick as he wins the Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai South constituency for the third consecutive term. The Shiv Sena (UBT) strongman defeated a two-term member of legislative assembly from Mumbai’s Byculla Yamini Jadhav, who scored poorly from her own assembly constituency.

What seemed to be a tough competition between Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray faction and Eknath Shinde faction, turned out to be an easy win for the Thackeray battalion as Sawant succeeds in maintaining his party’s rule for the third consecutive term. In a Sena vs Sena battle to claim dominance as the real Shiv Sena, Thackeray’s faction roared back with the third win giving yet another setback to the National Democratic Alliance.

The former union minister Sawant defeated Jadhav by 52,673 votes as he garnered 51% of the total votes. Even though the latter got a head start in the counting process with a lead of 3,023 votes in the first round, the trend changed from the second round as Sawant maintained lead until the 17th round. The last three rounds again turned towards Jadhav’s benefit but the lead could not make a big correction to Sawant’s lead.

Predicting an easy win, Sawant’s supporters and Shiv Sena (UBT) workers had started celebrations from before 2pm while the counting was just halfway. People gathered outside the counting centre in Sewri with party flags and colours greeting each other and congratulating for the victory on South as well as South Central seats, both of which were counted at Sewri. As Sawant stepped out of the counting centre after the last round, elated party workers greeted him with calls of “Shiv Sena Cha Wagh Aala” (Shiv Sena’s tiger has arrived).

Post his victory, Sawant said, “My victory is a result of people’s love and respect they have placed on me. Our old friend BJP used to say that we have been winning because of Narendra Modi’s face. It gives me immense pleasure today as we have proved that we have won the elections not through his face but Uddhav Thackeray’s face.”

Comprising some of the most affluent localities in the city and the administrative handling of the state, the powerhouse of the country’s financial capital Mumbai South has been believed to be one of the most important seats in the city. However, the NDA’s defeat on such an important seat is believed because of late declaration of Jadhav’s name for the seat, a failure to attract the Gujarati population of South Mumbai and Jadhav’s restricted exposure to the constituency outside her assembly constituency of Byculla.

However, Jadhav was deceived by voters from her own assembly constituency as she scored very poorly from Byculla. Jadhav and her husband, once a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray, are believed to have a strong influence in Byculla and Mazgaon, where she was elected as an MLA and municipal corporator respectively for two terms. Out of the total 20 rounds, Jadhav trailed in Byculla votes in 17 rounds. In some of the rounds, Jadhav scored even less than 20% of the votes received by Sawant from Byculla.

Taking a dig at the BJP government at the centre, Sawant said, “They have set up a market and committed ideological, economical and sociological adultery. They have now tasted the blows that the voters have given to them. They showed exit polls to the people but the people have shown them the exit.”