PHOTOS: PTI

ON CLOUD NINE: Supporters of Maharashtra Congress leader Narayan Rane celebrating his victory outside the counting centre at Malvan on Tuesday.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane dealt a body blow to his former party, the Shiv Sena, in the Malvan-Kankavali Assembly Constituency by-poll. He won by a a massive margin of 63,372 votes — almost as much as his total in last year's general election — making his Sena rival lose his deposit, as promised.

The Congress also retained the North-West Mumbai Lok Sabha seat. Priya Dutt, daughter of the late Sunil Dutt, defeated the Shiv Sena's Madhukar Sarpotdar by 1.72 lakh votes. The by-poll was conducted following the Sunil Dutt's death in May.

Mr. Rane, who was the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly when he was in the Shiv Sena, polled 78,616 votes as a Congress nominee as against his Sena rival, Parshuram Uparkar's 15,244 votes. The seat fell vacant after Mr. Rane resigned from the Assembly on joining the Congress. Mr. Rane has held the Malvan seat since 1991.

A year ago, Mr. Rane polled 63,784 votes, defeating his Congress rival Vijay Sawant by 34,145 votes. This time, Mr. Sawant was one of Mr. Rane's campaign managers. Mr. Rane joined the Congress after his expulsion from the Shiv Sena following differences with its executive president, Uddhav Thackeray.

Mr. Rane asked Mr. Thackeray to accept defeat and resign on moral grounds. "It is not Mr. Uparkar's defeat but that of Mr. Uddhav Thackeray," he said.

The Konkan region, including Malvan, has been a Shiv Sena stronghold. The Sena, which held 12 of the total of 21 seats in the region, has lost the most important seat.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said his Congress' target was now the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Mumbai Municipal Corporation, which would go to the polls in 2007.

The Sena will have to face at least three Assembly by-polls in the Konkan shortly. Of the ten Sena MLAs supporting Mr. Rane, three from the Konkan have resigned and joined the Congress.

While two are from Sangameshwar and Rajapur in the Ratnagiri district, the third is from Vengurla in Sindhudurg district.

PHOTOS: PTI

Priya Dutt waving to supporters after winning the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha Constituency, in Mumbai on Tuesday.

In North-West Mumbai, Priya Dutt secured 3,43,933 votes against Madhukar Sarpotdar's 1,71,890 votes.

Sunil Dutt was elected from the constituency five times and his popularity benefited his daughter. Ms. Dutt's actor-brother Sanjay Dutt, actor Salman Khan, and Congress MP from the neighbouring constituency Govinda campaigned for her.

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