Emboldened by the party's success in Maharashtra, state Congress leaders are already talking of fighting the Assembly elections, due this year, on their own to stave off the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, besides Sena-BJP.
Congress has gained four Lok Sabha seats in the state compared to the party's tally in 2004 polls. From 13, the tally has risen to 17, with the party bagging five of the six seats in Mumbai. The sixth seat went to NCP.
Congress-NCP's success in the financial capital has been largely due to the presence of MNS candidates in fray, a fact acknowledged by even Raj Thackeray's cousin and Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.
The performance of Congress has taken political observers by surprise in the backdrop of apprehensions over anti-incumbency and performance of the Congress-NCP regime.
However, the division of Marathi votes due to MNS candidates bode ill for the saffron combine and also the underperformance by BSP candidates helped Congress boost its tally.
The election results have come as a shocker for the Sena-BJP alliance which lost five seats in Vidarbha. During the 2004 polls, it won 10 of the 11 seats, with Congress winning the lone seat. This time, of the 10 seats in the region post-delimitation, Sena-BJP has won five.
NCP won nine seats in 2004 and wrested one more from the BJP later in a by-election. However, the party's tally this time around has come down to eight seats.
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The Congress-NCP alliance won 25 seats, three more than in 2004, while the Sena-BJP garnered 20. In 2004, the saffron combine had won 25 seats.
Pawar's prime ministerial ambitions will have to wait with Congress sweeping the polls, and in the state, the NCP chief also has to contend with the victory of his former colleague Sadashiv Mandlik (Kolhapur) who contested as an independent. Mandlik defeated NCP candidate, to prove that Pawar's denial of ticket to him was the party's loss.
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana MLA Raju Shetty (Hatkanangale) defeated NCP's Nivedita Mane. Baliram Jadhav (Palghar) of Bahujan Vikas Aghadi won, defeating Congress and BJP candidates.
MNS, which contested 12 seats six in Mumbai, three in Thane and one each in Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad, played spoilsport for BJP-Sena nominees like Ram Naik (Mumbai North), Kirit Somaiya (Mumbai North-East), Datta Gaikwad (Nashik) and Mohan Rawle (Mumbai South).
The results have given a boost to the Congress in the state and have jolted NCP, which was projecting Sharad Pawar as the prime ministerial candidate in case of a fractured mandate.