Ruling parties in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand today won four of the five seats in the Assembly bye-elections which saw Congress heavyweight Narayan Rane suffering the humiliation of a second defeat in six months when he lost Mumbai's Bandra (East) seat.
In these bye-elections, three women candidates, who contested in the seats falling vacant on the death of their husbands, rode a sympathy wave to score victories while a fourth retained the seat, won by her husband who was disqualified later on conviction in a murder case.
The highlight of today's results was the defeat of 63-year-old Rane, a former Chief Minister, at the hands of Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant by 19,008 vote.
Trupti's husband Bala Sawant had died, necessitating the by-election. Rane had lost from his home turf Kankavali in coastal Konkan region in last October elections.
Reacting to the result, Rane said he had put up a good fight on the issue of development but people have voted on the basis of emotions. "Victory or defeat is part of elections."
In the other bye-election in the state, NCP nominee and late R R Patil's wife Sumantai Patil won in Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal Assembly constituency of Sangli district by over 1.12 lakh votes.
NCP retained the seat which became vacant following the death of RR Patil. No major party had put up candidate against her.
It was the first electoral test for the BJP-Shiv Sena combine which formed the government after contesting the polls as rivals last year. Despite strains in their ties over a host of issues, BJP and Sena projected a united front to fight the Congress.
In Punjab, the ruling Akali Dal wrested the Dhuri seat from Congress and in Uttar Pradesh the ruling Samajwadi Party retained the Charkhari seat in Mahoba.
The Akali Dal candidate Gobind Singh Longowal won with a handsome margin drubbing Simar Partap Singh, a political greenhorn and grandson of former Governor and Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala.
SP candidate Urmila Rajput, whose husband Kaptan Singh was disqualification after conviction in a murder case necessitating the bye-election, won by a comfortable margin of over 40,000 votes defeating BJP's Gangacharan Rajput, a former MP.
