Low Voter Turnout in Mulshi, Local Political Equations and Developmental Issues Hampered Sangram Thopte’s Victory in Bhor
Pune:
Due to the overwhelming voter turnout for Shankar Mandekar from Mulshi taluka and the support he received from Bhor and Velhe talukas, and on the other hand, the low voter turnout for Sangram Thopte in Mulshi and the unexpected voter turnout in Bhor and Velhe spoilt Thopte’s victory and made Mandekar’s victory easy in the Bhor assembly constituency in the 2024 assembly elections. Because of this, there has been a change of power in the Bhor Legislative Assembly constituency after 25 years.
Bhor assembly constituency has 477 villages and 564 polling stations, making it one of the most difficult and complex constituencies in the state with the longest and most remote mountainous areas. Out of the total 4,30,278 voters, 2,91,704 (67.79 percent) people voted in this year’s election from Bhor. Out of the total voting percentage, 1,25,176 people voted in Bhor taluka. Whereas in Velhe and Mulshi, 39,921 and 1,26,607 voters cast their votes.
In this, Shankar Mandekar of the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) got 1,26,452 votes, Sangram Thopte got 1,06,817 votes, Kuldeep Konde got 29,065 votes, Kiran Dagde got 25,498 votes, and NOTA got 2,711 votes. Shankar Mandekar defeated Sangram Thopte by 19,635 votes. With Mandekar’s win over Thopte, there has been a change of power in the Bhor Legislative Assembly constituency after 25 years, and Mulshi taluka has got an MLA after 15 years.
Meanwhile, out of the 1,26,606 votes cast in Mulshi taluka, Shankar Mandekar got 82 thousand votes, and Sangram Thopte got 27,464 votes. This caused Mandekar to take a comfortable lead of 53,094 votes over Thopte. Meanwhile, Sangram Thopte got 78,881 votes in Bhor and Velhe and took a lead of 33,187 votes over his opponents. However, Thopte did not get the expected votes in Bhor and Velhe to reduce Mandekar’s lead in Mulshi taluka, and because of this, Shankar Mandekar of the NCP won from the Bhor constituency by about 19,635 votes.
Behind Thopte’s defeat in the Bhor, the factor of independent candidates is also a significant reason, as two independent candidates, Kuldeep Konde and Kiran Dagde, secured as much as 55,000 votes together. This has seriously impacted Thopte’s chances of victory. Apart from this, the less support of the NCP (SP) in the Mulshi Taluka and the divided voting of the Shiv Sena (UBT) also hampered Thopte’s victory.
Further, there are no MIDC’s in Bhor and Velhe talukas. Due to this, a large number of youth are unemployed. Despite having numerous forts in this area, there has been no development in terms of tourism. Therefore, there is no employment. This caused great anger among the youth. Apart from this, the issues of the incomplete canal pumping plan and the drinking water problem in the summer also affected the elections to a large extent. This resulted in the fall of the Thopte bastion, and after 1999, the Nationalist Congress Party was once again able to enter into the Bhor assembly constituency.
