Shiv Sena members celebrate after party candidate Trupti Sawant won the by-election to the Bandra (East) assembly constituency
BJP allies, the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal, brought good news home today, winning important by-elections to the Maharashtra and Punjab assemblies respectively.
The Shiv Sena has retained the high-profile Bandra (East) constituency in Mumbai in what became a prestige battle with the Congress fielding former chief minister and former Sena man Narayan Rane.
Trupti Sawant, the wife of legislator Prakash Sawant whose death necessitated the by-election, has won the seat by over 19,000 votes. It is a big blow for Mr Rane for whom this had also turned into a fight for political survival after a defeat from his home turf of Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan in the assembly elections last year.
As jubilant Sena workers launched colourful celebrations in Mumbai, party chief Uddhav Thackeray said, "It is not important that we defeated Rane. What's important is that we won. That's what makes us happy. Muslims have also voted for us." Mr Rane had joined the Congress after quitting the Shiv Sena in 2005.
Before the elections, he had described Mr Rane as an "imported candidate."
Bandra East is all the more important for the Sena as it houses the famous Thackeray residence, 'Matoshree'.
In another by-election in Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party retained the Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal constituency in Sangli district.
In Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal has wrested the Dhuri assembly seat from a deeply-divided Congress.
Akali candidate Gobind Singh Longowal, a former minister and three-time legislator, defeated Simar Partap Singh, a joint candidate fielded by the Congress and Sanjha Morcha. The victory has ensured that the Akali Dal now has 59 seats in the 117-member Punjab assembly, one more than the half-way mark on its own. The BJP has 12, the Congress 43.
Both the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal partner the ruling BJP at the Centre and also in their respective states, where their alliances are in power. The Shiv Sena, however, ceded its position as senior partner in Maharashtra to the BJP by winning fewer seats in national elections held last year and also in the assembly elections some months later.