Did the defectors win or lose? The surprising outcome of Shinde and Pawar's rebels

Most political defectors who joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP faction managed to retain their seats in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, despite a few losses. Key leaders from both factions emerged victorious, with some new replacements winning as well

So what happened to last time’s political defectors who joined the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)? Were they shelved by the electorate or accepted? The winning trends of the results show that most of them have been re-elected and managed to retain their seats. A few seats on which candidates were replaced were also retained by both the factions. Though a few others lost, most of the Sena and NCP defectors managed to keep their hold.

Shinde and Ajit Pawar themselves fared well. The latter won with a margin of 1,00,899 votes against nephew Yugendra Pawar while the former retained his Kopri-Pachpakhadi  seat with a margin of 1,20,717 votes against Sena (UBT) candidate Kedar Dighe.

Shinde Sena in MMR

While a number of candidates in the Shinde Sena won by a good margin, the party lost its bastion at Mahim with Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Mahesh Sawant defeating Sada Sarvankar by a margin of 1,316 votes. The other key constituency that the Shinde Sena lost to Sena (UBT) was Byculla, where Yamini Jadhav lost to Manoj Jamsutkar by 31,361 votes.

Others with Shinde Sena in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region include Balaji Kinikar, Ambernath (Thane), Mangesh Kudalkar (Kurla), Vishwanath Bhoir (Kalyan West), Shantaram More (Bhiwandi Rural), Dilip Lande (Chandivli), Shrinivas Vanga (Palghar), Pratap Sarnaik (Owala Majiwada) and Prakash Surve (Magathane). Of these, Shrinivas Vanga was not given a ticket this time. Instead, the party fielded Rajendra Gavit who won with a margin of more than 
40,000 votes.

Replacements who won

In two constituencies, close kin of former candidates got elected. In Erandol (Jalgaon), the son of 2019 candidate Chimanrao Patil, Amol won by a margin of 56,332 votes. Also, Chandrakant Sonawane, taking over from his wife and 2019 MLA Latabai Sonawane from Chopda, won by over 33,599 votes.

Shinde Sena leaders who lost

The three candidates who lost include Dnyanraj Chowgule (Umarga, Osmanabad) who lost by 3,965 votes; Shahaji Patil (Sangola, Solapur), who lost by 25,386 votes; and Sanjay Raymulkar (Mehkar, Buldhana) who was defeated by 4,819 votes.

The key leaders who defected with Ajit Pawar’s NCP include Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmarao Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.

While Bhujbal won from Yeola constituency by a margin of 26,400 votes, Dilip Walse Patil won from Ambegaon by a margin of 1,523 votes, Hasan Mushrif won from Kagal by a margin of 11,581 votes and Dhananjay Munde secured a win in Parli with a 1,40,224-vote margin. 

Aditi Tatkare from Shrivardhan won with a margin of 82,798 votes, Dharmarao Atram from Aheri was victorious with a 16,814-vote lead, Anil Patil from Amalner won by 33,435 votes and Sanjay Bansode of Udgir constituency won by 1,52,038 votes.

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