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Former chief minister and Congress candidate Narayan Rane today received yet another setback after he was defeated by Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant by a margin of 19,008 votes in the by-election for the Bandra East assembly constituency in north-west Mumbai.
This was his second successive defeat after Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader, had lost to Sena candidate Vaibhav Naik in Kudal seat in the assembly polls held in October 2014.
Sena got 52,711 votes as against 33,703 by Congress and 15,050 by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
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In the by-election for Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal seat, RR Patil's widow and NCP candidate Suman Patil won by over 1.12 lakh votes against Independent candidate Swapnil Patil.
The by-poll in Bandra East was necessitated following the death of Sena MLA Prakash Sawant. Sena has fielded Sawant's widow Trupti.
Incidentally, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's house, Matoshree, is in Bandra East.
Both Shiv Sena and Congress had made the by-poll a prestige issue. AIMIM, which had won two seats in the state during assembly polls, also campaigned aggressively, promising to provide an alternative to the voters in the Sena's stronghold.
The BJP, which had bagged 25,791 votes in the 2014 elections, supported Shiv Sena in this by-poll despite the friction between the two parties over who should be play the role of a big brother in the state.
Likewise, Congress and NCP had contested assembly election separately, but in the by-poll NCP extended its support to Rane. Rane was also supported by Samajwadi Party.
Interestingly, Rane banked on a split in the votes of Muslims, north Indians and Marathis. Besides, Rane and Congress made attempt to seek votes against the BJP-led NDA government at Centre and also in Maharashtra reminding voters about their promise of achchee din.
On the other hand, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya, who heads party's youth wing, fired salvo against Rane. They claimed that Rane and his son Nilesh (who lost Lok Sabha poll in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seat by Sena candidate Vinay Raut) were rejected by the people of Sindhudurg and Bandra would also snub them.
“We have shown Narayan Rane his rightful place. He deserted our party and betrayed Balasaheb and now our Shivsainiks have defeated him twice in less than one year. He can now go back to work in grampanchayat,” said Sena MP Vinayak Raut.
However, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ashok Chavan in his reaction said there was no need to get depressed. ''Congress party's vote percentage has increased. Rane is a fighter. One or two electoral losses do not make any difference,'' he noted.
