Rebel effect: Sena victory in Bhiwandi

This is the first time ever that a right-wing Hindu nationalist party has managed to win a seat in this town of 1.3 million, which accounts for half of India’s powerlooms and is dotted with sweat shops that produce branded clothing for big names in the West.

Sena candidate Yogesh Patil (33), who won the Bhiwandi Assembly constituency, defeated his nearest rival, the Samajwadi Party’s Mumbai chief Abu Asim Azmi, by a thumping margin of 40,000 votes.

The Sena victory came out of the blue and in the face of warnings from community leaders and Urdu newspapers in the town not to split the Muslim vote and to select candidates carefully after examining their stand on local issues.

Consider this: off the 4.67 lakh voters, the Hindu votebank numbered 1.13 lakh while the rest of the voters belonged to the Muslim community; and of the 14 candidates in the fray, six were Muslims including sitting Congress MLA Rashid Momin Tahir who contested as an Independent.