Andheri East bypoll: Result shows people rejected BJP's politics of horse-trading: Congress' Nana Patole

Nana Patole. File Pic

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

Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, won the bypoll after bagging over 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 Rutuja Latke's win, the Patole expressed confidence that the Congress and its allies would defeat the BJP in the coming elections, the PTI reported.

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.

IN PICS: Thackeray-led faction candidate Rutuja Latke wins Andheri East bypoll

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)