Uddhav Sena’s candidate polls 66,530 or 76.8 per cent votes, followed by None Of The Above which also sets a record at 14.9 per cent
Rutuja Latke with her daughter Bhargavi and son Ameya after her victory on Sunday. Pic/Rane Ashish
The victory of Uddhav Sena candidate Rutuja Latke in the Andheri East bypoll came on expected lines, but the second position was bagged by the most unlikely entity: NOTA. As the results were announced on Sunday, Latke, who contested on her party’s new symbol flaming torch, emerged as the winner with 66,530 votes, followed by the None Of The Above category at 12,806 votes of the 86,570 cast. This was the first election of the Shiv Sena Thackeray faction.
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As counting began in Andheri, the Mumbai police deployed about 300 personnel to maintain law and order. As many as 200 officials were involved in counting the votes. Uddhav Sena workers went ecstatic as soon as Latke was declared the winner. Firecrackers and loud music marked their celebrations.
While Latke’s vote share stood at 76.8 per cent, only second to NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s record vote share of 83.24 per cent in Baramati in the 2019 assembly election, the NOTA vote share of 14.9 per cent is the highest in the country, said sources.
Also read: IN PICS: Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction candidate Rutuja Latke wins Andheri East bypoll
Jubilant Uddhav Sena workers celebrate their victory in the Andheri East bypoll, on Sunday. Pic/Sameer Markande
This was also the first electoral contest in Maharashtra after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed in June following a revolt by a section of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde. The constituency has 2.71 lakh voters and the turnout stood at just 31.74 per cent.
The other five candidates didn’t even come close to NOTA. Of the independent candidates, Rajesh Tripathi got 1,571 votes, Neena Khedekar got 1,531, Farhana Siraj Sayed got 1,093 and Milind Kamble polled 624 votes. Bala Nadar of “Apki Apni Party” polled 1,515 votes, while Manoj Nayak of “Right to Recall Party” got 900 votes.
In the last election, Rutuja Latke’s husband Ramesh Latke had defeated Murji Patel by more than 15,000 votes. The bypoll, which was conducted on November 3, was necessitated due to Ramesh Latke’s death. While the BJP fielded Murji Patel, it pulled back from the contest after Raj Thackeray and Sharad Pawar batted for a no-contest poll as a mark of respect to Ramesh Latke.
86,570
Total votes cast
12,806
No of NOTA votes
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