Mumbai: Eight lakh more Mumbaikars voted this time than in the 2019 assembly polls, and 3.2 lakh more city voters exercised their franchise than during Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.
In the 2019 assembly polls, 50.5% voting had been recorded in Mumbai. Wednesday’s polling in the city was 55.5%. Given the difference of 5% and a total electorate of about 1.02 crore, eight lakh more Mumbaikars came out to vote. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mumbai’s voting percentage was 54.1%, so 0.8% additional voters came out to vote. Considering the total electorate then, the percentage translates to 1.8 lakh voters this time.
According to experts, if we consider the addition of almost 3.34 lakh voters in the assembly poll list over the 2024 Lok Sabha electoral roll, around 50% of those who voted on Wednesday could have been young voters who came out in significant numbers.
Dr Neeraj Hatekar, a political and social economist, said the majority of these youths could be either beneficiaries of the Ladki Bahin scheme or those youths who are aligned with the relatively younger and newer candidates put up by different parties.
“Definitely, the narrow margins we were considering due to multi-cornered fights in this election will not be so thin given the impressive rise in voting percentage. Only the result will tell us whether this additional voting was due to the EC’s awareness drive, or more youths impressed by govt schemes or projects voting, or the anti-incumbency factor,” Dr Hatekar said.
Another expert who did not wish to be named said the rise in percentage of voting across Maharashtra suggested the mandate might be decisive to either of the two sides.