Headlines
Sympathy factor helps Sena, NCP in Maharashtra by-polls
Mumbai/Sangli, April 15 Riding on a sympathy wave, the Shiv Sena and
Nationalist Congress Party nominees, both widows, raced towards victory in the
Maharashtra assembly by-polls in Mumbai and Sangli districts, according to
latest counting trends available here on Wednesday.
The Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant and the NCP's Suman Patil have secured strong
leads in their constituencies - Bandra East and Tasgaon-Kavthemahankal
respectively - where vote counting commenced in the morning and is expected to
be completed by afternoon.
The trends indicated a serious setback to the Congress's heavyweight candidate,
former chief minister Narayan T. Rane in Bandra East, who was trailing by over
15,000 votes.
In Tasgaon-Kavthemahanmal, Patil easily sailed through the challenge posed by a
Bharatiya Janata Party rebel Swapnil Patil, building up a lead of over 100,000
votes.
The Bandra East by-election last Saturday was necessitated by the death of
sitting Sena legislator Bala Sawant, and in Tasgaon-Kavthemahankal following
the death of sitting legislator and former deputy chief minister R.R. Patil.