Navi Mumbai, Jan 20: According to ward-wise NOTA data, Ward 9 recorded a total of 4,724 NOTA votes, the highest across Navi Mumbai, signalling strong voter dissatisfaction in the Ghansoli area.
The second-highest NOTA count was reported from Nerul’s Ward 25, which registered 4,461 votes, driven largely by Seat C alone accounting for 2,398 votes, the highest NOTA figure recorded in any single seat.
Overall NOTA share significant
Overall, 5,42,074 votes were cast in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) elections, of which 71,550 votes went to NOTA, amounting to around 13.2 per cent of the total votes polled.
This sizeable share of protest voting proved decisive in several closely fought contests, where the NOTA tally exceeded the margin of victory and altered the final outcome.
High NOTA voting across multiple wards
Besides Wards 9 and 25, high NOTA voting was also recorded in Airoli’s Ward 4 with 4,325 votes and Vashi’s Ward 16 with 3,806 votes. In Ward 9, Seat A alone saw 1,929 NOTA votes, while Seats C in Ward 4 and Ward 16 registered 1,888 and 1,912 votes respectively, indicating concentrated pockets of voter discontent.
NOTA impacts election outcomes
The impact of NOTA was clearly visible in multiple seat-level defeats. In Ward 3C, BJP candidate Shashikala Sutar lost by 154 votes, while 445 voters opted for NOTA.
In Ward 12C, BJP’s Darshan Daji Sanas was defeated by 126 votes, against 506 NOTA votes. Similarly, in Ward 12D, Shinde Sena’s Rahul Pawar lost by 236 votes, with 422 votes cast for NOTA.
Close contests among prominent candidates
In Ward 11, former corporators and long-time rivals Keshav Mhatre and Shivram Patil faced each other. While Shivram Patil retained two seats, his daughter-in-law, Pournima Patil, lost from Seat A by 644 votes, where 447 voters chose NOTA. Keshav Mhatre, too, lost from Seat D by 655 votes, with 607 NOTA votes recorded — far exceeding the margin of defeat in both cases.
Wards with relatively lower NOTA voting
In contrast, comparatively lower NOTA voting was recorded in Turbhe’s Ward 20 with 1,315 votes, Airoli’s Ward 2 with 1,320 and Belapur’s Ward 28 with 1,452 votes.
Other wards with relatively modest NOTA figures included Sanpada’s Ward 19 with 1,635 votes, Ghansoli’s Ward 8 with 1,767 votes, Koparkhairane’s Ward 12 with 1,811 votes and Ward 14 of the fourteen newly added villages with 1,868 votes.
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Candidates affected by NOTA margins
Several candidates narrowly missed victory, with their defeat margins covered by NOTA votes. These included BJP’s Shashikala Sutar in Ward 3, Rajashri Keni in Ward 5, Darshana Sanas in Ward 12, Shinde Sena’s Rahul Pawar in Ward 12 and Sushila Bhoir in Ward 14, as well as BJP’s Tejaswi Mhatre in Ward 27 and Kashinath Pawar in Ward 22.
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