The Hindu : National : Sena retains one seat, loses another in Maharashtra

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 20, 2006

National

National

Sena retains one seat, loses another in Maharashtra

Special Correspondent

Sena, Congress strength up in Assembly

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena retained the Shrivardhan Assembly constituency in the Konkan, but lost the prestigious Naigaum seat in by-elections necessitated by the defection of supporters of Narayan Rane from the Shiv Sena to the Congress.

Kalidas Kolambkar, who sought re-election on the Congress ticket in Naigaum, defeated Shiv Sena candidate Shradhdha Jadhav by 22,411 votes. Mr. Kolambkar polled 44,694 votes and Ms. Jadhav only 22,283 votes.

In Shrivardhan, Sena nominee Tukaram Surve secured 61,984 votes, against 46,232 polled by Congress candidate Shyam Sawant.

The polling took place on February 16, and the counting took place on Sunday.

Mr. Rane led a victory procession in Naigaum. He said: "The Sena has lost face. Now, our goal is the Mumbai Municipal Corporation." The defeat in Shrivardhan was "his personal defeat" but the victory in Naigaum was a result of the ideology of the Congress and its president, Sonia Gandhi.

With Naigaum under its belt, the Congress' strength in the Assembly has gone up to 73 seats, against 71 of its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party.

The Sena tally has now gone up to 60, against the 54 of its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Assembly has 288 seats.

Sangma bags Tura again

UNI reports from Shillong:

Lecturer and journalist-turned-politician Purno Agitok Sangma won the Tura parliamentary seat for the ninth consecutive term on Sunday.

During his illustrious stint, spanning almost over three decades, in Parliament, including his rise to the chair of Speaker, Mr. Sangma's personality and charisma appealed to the voters.

He, along with Mr. Sharad Pawar, left the Congress to form the Nationalist Congress Party. He parted ways with the NCP just before the general polls in 2004.

He had associated himself with the Nationalist Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee.

BJP wins U.P. seat

A PTI report from Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, says the BJP has retained the Mohammadabad Assembly seat. Alka Rai, wife of slain party MLA Krishnanand Rai, defeated her nearest Samajwadi Party rival Sri Krishna by a margin of over 33,000 votes.

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