Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Gopal Shetty defeated his nearest rival Urmila Matondkar of Congress in Mumbai North by nearly 4.7 lakh votes and won the seat in Maharashtra.

Shetty polled 7,06,678 votes while Matondkar has secured 2,41,431 votes, according to the Election Commission website.

About 9,63,388 votes were polled in the constituency where voting was held on April 29.

Making her debut into politics, Urmila contested against incumbent BJP MP Gopal Shetty. Shetty had beaten Congress candidate Sanjay Nirupam by over 4 lakh votes in 2014.

PTI reported that the Congress zeroed in on Urmila after being unable to find someone suitable to take on Shetty. This was reportedly after Nirupam had shown unwillingness to contest the elections this time.

The report said that Urmila had surprised many with her articulateness while speaking on political issues and had ensured that the BJP has a fight on hand and the contest is no longer a cakewalk.

First Published:May 23, 2019 9:46 AM IST