In a major setback for the Bahujan Vanchit Aaghadi (BVA), Bharatiya Janata Party's Sneha Dube Pandit has defeated BVA's Hitendra Thakur by over 3,700 votes, according to the Election Commission's website.
As per the ECI's official data, Sneha Dube Pandit received 77,279 votes after the final 26th round of counting, while incumbent MLA Hitendra Thakur put up a tough fight, garnering 74,004 votes.
BVA chief Hitendra Thakur, a six-time MLA from the seat, was eyeing a seventh victory in the Vasai constituency. He represented the seat between 1990 and 2009 as a Congress and Independent candidate. However, he lost to Vivek Pandit in 2009. Thakur later formed his own party and reclaimed the seat from Pandit in 2014.
This time, Vasai witnessed a triangular contest between BJP's Sneha Dube, Congress's Vijay Patil, and BVA's Hitendra Thakur. Vijay Patil secured the third spot with an impressive 61,874 votes.