Sympathy did not win the by-election for Harshada Wanjale in the Khadakwasla Assembly seat and her rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Bhimrao Tapkir squeaked past her by a margin of 3,825 votes after the counting on Monday.
Ms. Wanjale was given the ticket by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after the death of her husband Ramesh Wanjale in June. BJP's Pune unit president Vikas Mathkari said Ms. Wanjale had lost out on the sympathy vote, as she had switched from the MNS to the NCP, for her own benefit. “People's sympathy ended when she entered the NCP,” he said.Ramesh Wanjale, who died following cardiac arrest, had won on the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket in 2009, upsetting NCP's Vikas Dangat by over 20,000 votes.
Surprise for BJP
Ms. Wanjale was fairly certain of a win and even the BJP on Monday admitted that the victory was a surprise. The NCP has lost this seat the second time in a row. This is the first win for the Shiv Sena-BJP and Republican Party of India (RPI) (Athavale) alliance.
A miffed MNS did not field a candidate and MNS chief Raj Thackeray called the results “a slap on Ajit Pawar's face.”
“People are fed up with the cheap politics of money for votes,” he said.
The election was a test for the NCP, masterminded as it was by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar who muscled out the Congress which was also keen on giving Ms. Wanjale the ticket. In the 2009 polls, the late Ramesh Wanjale wanted the Congress ticket which was denied to him, since it was an NCP seat. Despite excellent relations with Mr. Ajit Pawar, he could not get the NCP ticket. He secured the MNS ticket and it turned out lucky.
Ms. Wanjale was a Congress zilla parishad member and the entire family is close to the Congress.
