FPJ Exclusive: Will Mira-Bhayandar's 15-Year-Old Jinx Break? Fierce Triangular Contest On Anvil

Mira Bhayandar: Can the Mira Bhayandar (145) assembly constituency break the 15-year-old jinx of denying a victory to sitting legislators? This is the question on everyone’s minds as sitting legislator and independent candidate Geeta Jain is locked in a fierce battle against MahaYuti’s Narendra Mehta (BJP) and Maha Vikas Aghadi's  Muzaffar Hussain (Congress) in the assembly elections scheduled to be held on 20, November.

A Bit About History

History has it that sitting legislators have never failed to make a comeback for a consecutive term since the constituency came into existence in 2009. In the first election, NCP’s Gilbert Mendonca defeated BJP’s Narendra Mehta by a margin of 10,604 votes. While Mendonca bagged 62,013 votes, Mehta had to remain content with 51,409 votes even as MNS candidate- Chandrakant Vaity remained a distant third with 27,220 votes.

In the 2014 elections, Mehta secured 91,468 votes and defeated sitting legislator- Gilbert Mendonca (NCP) by a margin of 32,292 votes. Congress candidate Yakub Qureshi and Shiv Sena’s Prabhakar Mhatre remained third and fourth by bagging 19,489 and 18,171 votes respectively. The 2019 elections witnessed a triangular contest after Geeta Jain who after being denied a BJP ticket fought as an independent and defeated sitting legislator Narendra Mehta by a margin of 15,526 votes.

Jain bagged 79,575 votes followed by Mehta (BJP) and Hussain (Congress) with 64,049 and 55,939 votes respectively. The scenario of the current elections is similar to some extent as Mehta, Hussain, and Jain are once again in the arena along with around 15 other candidates including Sandeep Rane (MNS), Freda Moraes (Bahujan Vikas Aghadi), and independents.  

About the Assembly Segment

With the addition of around 68,000 new voters, the electoral strength of the Mira Bhayandar assembly segment currently stands at 5,07,452 including-2,41,213 female voters, 2,66, 235 female voters, 11,328 voters (aged between 18 to19 years), 2,210 physically challenged voters and 5,061 voters aged above 85 years. In the 2019 assembly polls, this segment recorded a turnout of 48.41 percent with an electoral strength of 4,39,283.