Minister Ganesh Naik loses Belapur to BJP's Manda Mhatre, son Sandeep retains Airoli seat

Former MLC Manda Mhatre, who defected from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won the Belapur assembly seat on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket on Sunday. Mhatre, who joined BJP just before the assembly election, defeated Navi Mumbai strongman Ganesh Naik by a close margin of just 1,419 votes. 

In the other contest in Navi Mumbai, Naik’s son Sandeep retained the Airoli seat. He defeated Shiv Sena candidate Vijay Chaugule.
 
The assembly election was important for Ganesh Naik as his elder son Sanjeev Naik had lost the parliament election held in April this year. And, his seat was at also stake because of the anti-incumbency factor.
 
Mhatre was an underdog candidate as it was believed she did not have support of all party workers in BJP. Even a section of BJP workers had opposed her candidature, but along the way they fell in line. 
 
It was a see-saw battle throughout the counting, with Mhatre, Naik and Shiv Sena's Vijay Nahata sharing the lead at the end of different rounds of counting. Mhatre bagged 55,316 votes, while Ganesh Naik got 53,825 votes. Nahata, who served as civic chief in NMMC in the past, got 50,983 votes.  
 
Meanwhile, in Airoli, Vaibhav Naik, who defected Shiv Sena after he was denied ticket proved a spoiler for the Sena candidate Chaugule. Sandeep Naik defeated Vijay Chaugule by a margin of 8725 votes. Naik got 76444 votes while Chaugule got 67719 votes and Vaibhav Naik polled an impressive 46405 votes on the BJP ticket.