Disappointment for many who lost narrowly

The Bandra West seat,as expected,saw a neck-and-neck fight between two-time MLA Siddique and two-time BJP corporator Ashish Shelar. At one point,Shelar was leading by 9,000 votes but was eventually defeated when counting progressed to Siddique’s strongholds in Bandra. “There was no MNS candidate to split the BJP votes here. Plus there were many Independents; if you put together the votes that have gone to them as well as those of the Samajwadi Party,my victory margin will go higher,” he said.

Political novice Hegde takes it in his stride that he has managed to trounce two political stalwarts. “Both were strong candidates — Vinayak Raut is Sena’s secretary and Shirish Parkar is MNS’s general secretary,” he said.

The sum total of the votes garnered by Sena and MNS candidates is 33,452,which is higher than that of Hegde. MLAs Suresh Shetty of Congress (Andheri East) and NCP’s Sachin Ahir (Worli) and Congress corporator Rajhans Singh (Dindoshi) too won by less than 6,000 votes.

The fledging MNS’s increasing sway in Sena bastions was most evident in Thane city,where Sena’s Rajan Vichare defeated MNS’s Rajan Raje by mere 2,441 votes. In Kalyan West constituency,MNS candidate Prakhash Bhoir won by a lean margin of 5,549 votes. The predominantly Muslim seats of Bhiwandi West and Bhiwandi Rural too recorded winning margins of less than 2,500 votes.