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, Kandivali, Bandra, Andheri and Jogeshwari, and key constituencies in the eastern suburbs are Mulund, Bhandup, Ghatkopar and Kurla.

The Battle In Mumbai’s Charkop

Charkop (161) assembly constituency is mainly the Kandivali West area of Mumbai. The Charkop 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, Kandivali East and Malad West. Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat is the BJP’s stronghold and the Charkop since its first assembly elections in 2009 is represented by the BJP.

BJP’s Yogesh Sagar is the three-term sitting MLA in this seat and has been renominated by the party for the 2024 assembly polls too. Sagar is the Mahayuti candidate, and MVA has fielded Congress’ Yashwant Singh, a newcomer. The seat will witness a direct BJP versus Congress contest.

Last Poll Statistics

After its formation in 2008, the first assembly elections in Charkop were held in 2009 and since then BJP’s Yogesh Sagar is single-handedly leading the seat. In 2009, he defeated Congress’ Bharat Parekh, in 2014 Sagar defeated undivided Shiv Sena’s Shubhada Gudekar with a margin of 64,367 votes and in 2019 he defeated Congress candidate Kalu Budhelia with a margin of 73,749 votes. Notably, Congress has fielded Budhelia from the neighboring Kandivali East constituency.

If Yogesh Sagar wins from Charkop in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections, he will represent the seat for the fourth consecutive time. Considering the Mumbai North has been the bastion of the BJP and the absence of a strong opponent, Sagar is likely to have a one-sided fight.

Constituency’s Performance in 2024 Lok Sabha Polls

Charkop 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 got a total of 6,80,146 votes, of which Charkop assembly constituency gave him 125,635 votes. Bhushan Patil got 46,539 votes from Charkop.

About Charkop Seat

Charkop is not a reserved seat and is allotted to General Category candidates. During the 2019 assembly polls, the Charkop constituency had total 2,88,602 registered voters, of which 157,573 were male voters, 131,026 were female voters and three were third-gender voters. The voter turnout in the Charkop seat for the last assembly election was 52.74 percent.

Current situation in Maharashtra Assembly

Currently, the ruling disposition, Mahayuti in Maharashtra has 202 MLAs with it. Out of these, BJP has 102 seats, NCP (Ajit Pawar) has 40, Shiv Sena (Shinde) has 38 and other parties have 24.

MVA has 69 seats in its kitty. Out of these, Congress has 37, Shiv Sena (UBT) has 16, NCP (Sharad Pawar) has 12 and other parties have six seats. Fifteen seats are vacant.