How Gujaratis helped Manoj Kotak win in Mumbai’s North East constituency
Hindustan TimesIt is not only the expected Gujarati voters who paved the way for BJP’s Manoj Kotak’s entry into the Parliament from the Mumbai North East constituency, but also traditional Shiv Sena voters. Of the six Assembly constituencies, Kotak got a lead in five, which includes the Gujarati-dominated areas of Mulund and Ghatkopar, along with Maharashtrian voters from Bhandup and Vikhroli. Post his victory, Kotak said, “It is the combined effort of the Sena, BJP and RPI workers that ensured our comfortable victory.” The Ghatkopar East and West segments together polled 1,80,272 votes for Kotak as compared to Patil, who got 74,407 votes. Of the six areas, Patil got a lead of 42,062 votes against Kotak only in the Muslim-dominated Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar constituency.