The high-profile Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency, which saw the departure of former MP Milind Deora from the Congress to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Sunday, has largely remained with the Congress for most of the last six decades. The BJP has only won the seat twice in the period, since 1962 – in 1996, and 1999. However, if the Congress won the seat eight times in the 15 elections held between 1962 and 2014, the party lost it to the undivided Shiv Sena in 2014 and 2019.

Apart from these main parties, the Socialist Party and the Janata Party have also won Mumbai South.

The MP from Mumbai South holds considerable clout as the constituency is home to the who’s who of India’s financial capital, from leading industrialists and politicians to bureaucrats and artists. Mantralaya, which is the headquarters of state government, and the Vidhan Bhavan, where the legislature convenes, are all located in this constituency. Its scenic coastal stretch gives the constituency a distinct identity. From the Bombay Stock Exchange to the Jehangir Art Gallery, several important institutions are located in the Mumbai South constituency.

In the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP got its first break in Mumbai South, the party’s Jayawantiben Mehta had defeated Milind’s father and Congress veteran Murli Deora in a direct contest. While the BJP polled 44.68% of the votes, the Congress had to settle for 37.21%. The Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Marzban Patrawala polled 15.52% of the votes, marking the party’s entry in the constituency.

Mehta, handpicked by the BJP to take on Deora, managed her first win after multiple attempts against the Congress leader, the first of these being in 1984. Defeating Deora was no mean task, given his proximity to the powers that be both in the Gandhi family and the city. It was Deora who hosted a lunch in Mumbai in Sonia Gandhi’s honour before she took charge as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) president.

While in the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, Deora avenged the defeat, a year later, in the 1999 general elections, Mehta won the seat again against him.

Five years later, in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress first fielded Deora’s son Milind as the Mumbai South candidate. In his electoral debut, Milind defeated the established Mehta, winning 50.3% of the vote share. The electoral outcome gave Milind the boost he needed.

Since 2009, the BJP has not contested Mumbai South, leaving it for its then alliance partner, the undivided Shiv Sena, as part of its seat-sharing arrangement. While in 2009, Milind repeated his feat, in 2014 and 2019, the Narendra Modi factor worked to the Shiv Sena’s advantage. Its candidate Arvind Sawant defeated the Congress’s Milind Deora both times.

The elections when Mumbai South did not go to the BJP, the Congress or the Sena are also well-remembered. In 1967, Socialist Party leader George Fernandes was the outlier who defeated Congress heavyweight S K Patil from Mumbai South, stunning the party and earning Fernandes the title of “George the giant killer”. Patil was till then considered the unchallenged leader of Mumbai.

Then, in 1977, the elections after the Emergency, Ratansinh Rajda of the Janata Party defeated the Congress’s Ramanlal Chhotalal Ankleshwaria. Rajda went on to retain the seat in the subsequent 1980 polls.