MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Thursday defeated its defector MP Subodh Mohite, seeking re-election on the Congress ticket from the Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, giving a jolt to his mentor, Revenue Minister Narayan Rane.

The seat fell vacant when Mr. Mohite left the Shiv Sena and joined the Congress.

The Sena nominee, Prakash Jadhav, won by a margin of 32,571 votes. He polled 2,31,239 votes against the Congress candidate Mohite's 1,98,668. A Congress rebel, Ranjit Deshmukh, got 79,638 votes.

Mr. Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader who joined the Congress over a year ago and became Minister, persuaded five Shiv Sena legislators to resign their Assembly seats and got them elected on the Congress ticket in the ensuing by-polls.

Fielding Mr. Mohite was Mr. Rane's first attempt to reduce the Sena's strength in the Lok Sabha.

Mr. Rane squarely blamed his colleagues in the Congress for the defeat.

"Some people in the party were disturbed by my growing strength and some Congress leaders had more interests in checking my might than in the party's victory," he told reporters in the legislature press room.

He felt that Mr. Deshmukh was propped up by the Congress leaders to check his growth.

"Of the six Assembly segments of the Ramtek constituency, the Shiv Sena holds only one and it is Mr. Deshmukh who gets votes in the Congress-held areas and not Mr. Mohite," he said.

Mr. Rane said that his was the lone fight against the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in Ramtek and all others were against him. "I have learnt many a lesson in this election."

There was jubilation in the Shiv Sena camp, which thinks the victory would stop Mr. Rane from further damaging the Sena's hold. It also indicated that the party's influence has not diminished despite the parting of ways with Raj Thackeray, nephew of the party chief, Bal Thackeray. The victory also underscores the effectiveness of the leadership of the party's executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Ramdas Kadam (Shiv Sena) said the voters have taught Mr. Rane a good lesson as he was prevailing upon legislators to resign.

The BJP, Sena's ally, claimed credit for the Ramtek victory but could not rejoice as it lost the Erandol Lok Sabha seat in north Maharashtra to the Nationalist Congress Party though it retained Jalgaon.

The NCP candidate in Erandol, Vasant More, won by a margin of 52,209 votes, defeating the BJP's B.S. Patil. In Jalgaon, BJP nominee Haribhau Mahale won by 25,717 votes, defeating Arjun Bhangale of the Congress.

The by-elections in these two constituencies were caused by the expulsion of the BJP MPs, Y.G. Mahajan (Jalgaon) and M.K. Anna Patil (Erandol), for their alleged involvement in the `cash for query' scam.

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