MUMBAI: As expected, Raj Thakeray led Maharashtra Navanirman Sena(MNS)on Thursday shattered the dreams of Maratha patriarch Bal Thackeray to bring his son Udhav Thackeray to Mumbai’s seat of power. Playing to perfection the ‘Marathi manoos’ card, Raj pulled off the victory in style by opening account in the Assembly with 13 new MLAs.
As Shiv Sena fortress in Mumbai fell one by one due to the MNS onslaught, Raj has demonstrated again that he is the one who decides the political fortunes of the financial city of India and its suburban Thane region.
The results also show that over the last months Raj has stretched his influence to districts of Nasik, Pune and Aurangabad.
Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of the late BJP leader Pramod Majahan, had to eat humble pie as she was defeated by Ram Kadam of the MNS.
In the same way, cricketer and Third Front candidate Vinod Kambli was clean bowled by Maharashtra Navanirman Sena nominee Mangesh Sangle at Vikhroli constituency in the city.
The joy at Rajgad, the house-cum-party headquarters of Raj at Dadar, knew no bounds as the results trickled in from Sena fortress of Dadar (Mahim Assembly constituency) from where Bal Thackeray used to remotecontrol the state.
Maharashtra Navanirman Sena spokesman Nitin Sardesai won there defeating Sena nominee and theatre personality Aadesh Bandekar and Sada Sarvankar of the Congress.
The other prominent MNS winners are Shishir Shinde (Bhandup West) and Bala Nandgaonkar (Shivdi).
In Nasik district, the party won three seats __ Uttamrao Dhikle (Nasik), Vasant Gite (Nasik Central) and Nitin Bhonsle (Nasik West).
Party nominee Harsha Vardhan Jadav won from Aurangabad seat.
In Kalyan West, Prakash Bhoir and in Kalyan Rural Ramesh Patil emerged winners, besides Pravin Darekar in Magathane and Ramesh Wanjlie in Ghatak Vasle in Pune district.