New Delhi, November 22
The Shiv Sena suffered a shock defeat in its strong hold Malvan seats in the Maharashtra Assembly poll bringing cheer to the Congress camp, on a day when the party heard of only political reverses of its poll alliance in Bihar.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister and Congress candidate Narayan Rane today won the Malvan Assembly byelection by a massive margin of 63,372 votes, defeating his Shiv Sena rival Parshuram Uparkar, who lost his deposit, while Congress candidate Priya Dutt won the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat by a record margin.
Rane, the Sena rebel-turned-Congressman, polled 78,616 votes, while Uparkar could garner only 15,244 votes.
The byelection was necessitated due to the resignation of Rane, who has been representing the Shiv Sena from Malvan in the past. He later joined the Congress. The bypoll was held on November 19.
Daughter of the late Sunil Dutt and Congress candidate Priya Dutt won the byelection to the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat by a record margin. She defeated her nearest rival of the Shiv Sena, Madhukar Sarpotdar.
The election was necessiated following the death of Dutt in May, who had represented the seat for several terms.
However, in Kerala, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) won the bypoll to the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat as its candidate Panniyan Ravindran (CPI) defeated his nearest Congress rival V.S. Sivakumar by a margin of 74,000 votes.
An estimated 68.05 per cent of the 1.2 million electorate had exercised their franchise in the byelection necessitated by the death of CPI leader and former Kerala Chief Minister P.K. Vasudevan
Nair.
