Mumbai: Shiv Sena’s Vitthal Lokare emerged victorious in the civic by-election for Mankhurd’s ward number 141. He defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Dinesh Panchal by 1385 votes. Lokare secured 4,427 votes, while Panchal got 3042 votes, raising the Shiv Sena’s tally in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to a strength of 95 corporators.

A total of 18 candidates contested the by-election and 13,476 voters caste their votes. 55 voters chose the None of the Above (NOTA) option. In third place, independent candidate Khan Barkatullah got 1787 votes.

The BMC polls were held in 2017, and Lokare was elected from the same seat on a Congress ticket. Three months ago, Lokare resigned as corporator and joined Shiv Sena, necessitating the by-poll for the Mankhurd seat. Lokare had subsequently contested the state Assembly elections on a Sena ticket, but was defeated by Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi. He then stood on a Sena ticket for the civic by-poll for a seat he had won on a Congress ticket earlier.

There are all 32,086 voters in this ward, of whom 18,054 are male and 14,032 female. This time, 42 per cent voters turned out to cast their votes, whereas in 2017, the voter turnout was 56.87.

Also in the fray in the by-poll were Samajwadi Party candidate Khan Jameer Bhole who got 1,486 votes, and independent candidate Khan Barkatullah, who secured 1,787 votes.

During the corporation election in 2017, Lokare as Congress candidate won the seat by securing 3,652 votes. BJP candidate Panchal had managed to secure 2,658 votes, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate secured 2,249 votes, Samajwadi Party got 2,337 votes and 107 voters had opted for NOTA.

Party               Number of corporators in BMC

Shiv Sena:                  95

BJP                             83

Congress                    28

NCP                            08

AIMIM                         02

SP                               06

MNS                           01

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