Mumbai: The campaign for assembly polls ended on Monday evening, but for this multi-cornered contest, political parties spent Tuesday focusing on getting their voters out in full strength on Wednesday.
Political observers said the worry of thin margin wins or losses put the focus on voter turnout, as parties geared to get supporters to vote. They pointed out that compared with 2019, when there were only two prominent Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena-BJP alliances in the fray, this time there are six to seven major parties along with smaller parties fighting the polls. They said booth-level workers and backroom managers and their performance could make a difference between winning and losing.
“This makes it a multi-party contest, and margins are expected to be thin. In Lok Sabha, Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar won from Mumbai North West by just 48 votes, so this time candidates and poll managers don’t want to take any chances. Voter turnout and the party’s voting machinery will be equally important as the popularity of the candidate or netas. All parties in Mumbai are now in backroom operations to get core voters out,” said a political observer.
Most netas and candidates were carrying out backroom operations, doing last-minute checks on booth management, and ensuring that their core voters come to the booths. “After the tumultuous campaigning for the assembly elections ended, I spoke to BJP netas, booth chiefs, and booth workers from my South-West Nagpur constituency over the phone and took a detailed review of tomorrow’s preparations. I also wished everyone a successful celebration of democracy,” said BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis in a post on X.
A political analyst said with parties such as MNS and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) fighting over 200 seats, their vote-splitting ability will be tested. “These candidates who are not in Mahayuti or MVA will make things more difficult for the bigger parties. After the split in the Shiv Sena and NCP, and one faction with each alliance, whose votes will be split because of the smaller parties and independents is very difficult to guess. So, the only way to counter this is to ensure maximum voting among core groups and supporters. Usually, enthusiasm among voters is lower in assembly polls compared to Lok Sabha polls, so it will be a challenge. The last day, last-minute voting machinery may prove to be pivotal,” the analyst said.
Rebels threatened to become a headache for the two major alliances. Close to 150 politicians from across parties filed nominations in defiance of their party’s or multi-party alliance’s official candidates. Later, many of them withdrew their nominations, and those who didn’t were suspended or sacked by their parties. Some of them still in the fray pose a threat to their party or alliance’s official candidate. In the 2019 assembly polls, Mumbai recorded a voter turnout of 50.67% and in the 2014 assembly polls 51.21%. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mumbai recorded a 52.4% voter turnout, down from 55.4% in the 2019 polls.