Mumbai, January 23
Tacit support from the Congress helped the Shiv Sena wrest the Bhiwandi East Assembly seat vacated by Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Abu Azmi. The sena’s Rupesh Mhatre won the bypolls by a slender margin of 1,676 votes.

Azmi, who had won both Bhiwandi East and Mankhurd Assembly seats in last Assembly elections in October, vacated the former. His son Farhan contested the seat on an SP ticket.

However, the Congress fielded prominent leader of the minority community Muzaffar Hussain who split the SP’s votes thereby allowing the Shiv Sena to bag the seat.

The bypolls saw a turnout of 42 per cent in this constituency with 2.22 lakh voters. The Shiv Sena had earlier won the seat in 2004.

Though the constituency’s population has nearly 50 per cent Muslims, their votes have been split between the SP and the Congress.