Mumbai: The ensuing Maharashtra assembly elections are the first direct battle between the Mahayuti and MVA after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The campaigns have reached at last stages and PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have also conducted election rallies in Mumbai. Being the capital city, the battle to lead in Mumbai is what any political party wants.
Mumbai has 36 assembly constituencies, including Mumbai city and suburbs. Some of the key constituencies in the western suburbs include Dahisar, Borivali, Malad, Kandivali, Bandra, Andheri and Jogeshwari, and key constituencies in the eastern suburbs are Mulund, Bhandup, Ghatkopar, Chembur and Kurla.
The Battle In Mumbai’s Malad West
Malad West (162) assembly constituency was formed after the delimitation in 2008. It is part of the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency along with five others, namely Dahisar, Borivali, Magathane, Charkop and Kandivali East. Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat is BJP’s stronghold, however, the Malad West assembly seat since its formation has been represented by Congress. Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh has been single-handedly leading the constituency since 2009 despite the neighboring assembly seats being with the BJP. The seat has always seen a direct BJP versus Congress battle, and despite the Modi wave in 2014 and 2019, Shaikh managed to win the seat comfortably.
For the 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Congress has renominated its three-term sitting MLA Aslam Shaikh, while BJP this time has fielded Vinod Shelar, brother of Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar. If Shaikh manages to win this election too, he will be representing the Malad West seat for the fourth consecutive time.
Last Poll Statistics
Congress’ Aslam Shaikh has a stronghold in Malad West constituency. In the first assembly elections in Malad West in 2009, Shaikh won against BJP’s R U Singh. In 2014, Shaikh defeated BJP’s Ram Barot by 2,303 votes and in 2019 Shaikh defeated BJP’s veteran leader and former MLA from Kandivali Ramesh Singh Thakur by 10,383 votes.
Voting in the constituency during 2019 assembly polls | EC
Constituency’s Performance in 2024 Lok Sabha Polls
Malad West assembly constituency is part of the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency, the bastion of the BJP and in the 2024 Lok Sabha, Union Minister Piyush Goyal was elected as the MP, defeating Bhushan Patil from Congress. Piyush Goyal won the seat with total of 6,80,146 votes. From Malad West assembly constituency, Goyal got 87,440 votes and Bhushan Patil got 88,375 votes.
About Malad West Seat
Malad West is not a reserved seat and is allotted to General Category candidates. During the 2019 assembly polls, the Malad West constituency had total 296,495 registered voters, of which 158,399 were male voters, 137805 were female voters and 291 were third-gender voters. The voter turnout in this seat in the last assembly election was 52.73 percent.
