Andheri (East) Bypoll Result Shows People Rejected BJP's Politics Of Horse-Trading: Nana Patole

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Sunday said the result of the byelection to the Andheri (East) constituency here showed that people rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party's "politics of horse-trading and terrorising political opponents".

Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray, on Sunday won the bypoll by bagging more than 66,000 votes. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the constituents of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray, had supported Latke's candidature.

Talking to reporters after Latke's win, Patole expressed confidence that the Congress and its allies would defeat the BJP in the coming elections. He said the Andheri (East) bypoll result shows that people don't trust the 'ED' (Eknath Shinde- Devendra Fadnavis) government.

"People in the constituency showed their trust in the MVA through their voting and rejected BJP's politics of horse-trading and terrorising political opponents,'' he said. Patole also said that the BJP's claim of not contesting the bypoll since was due to the death of a sitting MLA was false.

''BJP had put up candidates in Kolhapur, Deglur and Pandharpur in the last two three years where bypoll was held due to death of sitting MLAs,'' he said. People have rejected the politics of the Eknath Shinde-led group and BJP of freezing the Shiv Sena party's name and symbol, he said, adding people will defeat the BJP and Shinde faction in all future elections. 

The November 3 byelection, necessitated due to the death of sitting Shiv Sena MLA and Rutuja Latke's husband Ramesh Latke in May this year, was a mere formality after the BJP withdrew its candidate from the race. 

(With PTI Inputs)