BJP wins Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll defeating ally Shiv Sena

In an otherwise disappointing performance by the Saffron party in the assembly and Parliament bypolls held on Monday, BJP today won the Palghar Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra with its candidate Rajendra Gavit defeating Shrinivas Wanaga of the Shiv Sena by 29,572 votes.

The result of the Palghar bypoll was declared after completion of counting of votes in 33 rounds, a state election official said.

Gavit polled 2,72,782 votes against 2,43,210 by Wanaga.

Baliram Jadhav of Bahujan Vikas Agadhi (BVA) was placed third with 2,22,838 votes, while Kiran Gahla of the CPM secured 71,887 votes. Damodar Shingda of the Congress finished a distant fifth with 47,714 votes.

Shankar Bhaga Badade of Marxist Leninst Party of India polled 4884 votes. Sandeep Jadhav ,the lone independent in the fray got 6670 votes.

There were a total of 17,31,077 voters. The number of valid votes polled was 869985. There were 16,884 votes under NOTA.

The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of BJP MP Chintaman Wanaga and saw a bitter face-off between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, the sparring ruling allies in the state.

The Shiv Sena fielded Shrinivas Wanaga, late Chintaman Wanaga's son, while the BJP put up Gavit, a former Congress minister, as their candidates.

Making it a matter of prestige, the BJP leaders hit the ground with state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Smriti Irani campaigning for the BJP nominee.

During the poll campaign, the BJP dubbed the Uddhav Thackeray-led party as a "backstabber".

In the run up to the Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll, the Sena chief had released an audio clip of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, purportedly asking the BJP workers to use all possible means to win the election.

Fadnavis had responded by releasing a 14-minute audio clip, claiming it was the complete version of the clip released by Sena. "The Sena can see it is losing and has thus stooped to such levels," he had claimed.

NCP leader Nawab Malik said the Congress should have extended support to BVA candidate Jadhav as he had contested against Chintaman Wanaga in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and was then supported by the Congress.