Sweet win for NCP-Cong in sugar belt

The Congress increased its tally by one in the sugar belt by winning Kopargaon. Congress’ Prakashbapu Patil’s victory in Sangli, who faced challenge from his own partymen during electioneering, proved a great relief for the party.

The going was, however, made tough for the NCP in Satara and Kolhapur constituencies by the Shiv Sena. While NCP nominee Laxmanrao Patil, who was trailing behind till the last round of counting, won by a wafer-thin margin of 2,457 votes, another stalwart, Sadashiv Mandlik in Kolhapur, could only manage a margin of 14,753 votes.

In Sangli, Congress candidate Prakashbapu Patil won the elections for the fifth consecutive time. He defeated Deepak Shinde of the BJP by a margin of 81,623 votes. Patil polled 3,05,048 votes while Shinde polled 2,23,425 votes. Nagnath Naikwadi of the Left Front came third with 1,32,000 votes.

Srinivas Patil comfortably retained Karad by defeating Vasantrao Mankumre by a huge margin of 1,86,730 votes. Patil polled 4,36,732 votes and Mankumre polled 2,40,000 votes. In Ichalkaranji NCP nominee Nivedita Mane defeated Sena’s Sanjay Patil by 1,01,000 votes.

In neighbouring Ahmednagar, the Congress-NCP alliance snatched away both the seats from the saffron combine by a handsome margin.

In Kopargaon, Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil, former member of the Vajpayee ministry, defeated Shiv Sena candidate Bhanudas Murkute by 86,331 votes. Patil, initially with the Congress, joined the Sena a few years ago but returned to the parent party a few days before the elections.