'Victory thanks to senior party leaders'

Thane, Dombivli winners share credit with PM Narendra Modi, CM Devendra Fadnavis among others; list priorities for next term

Celebrations began quite early among BJP workers across Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi. Venues of special screening of election results in Thane saw victory slogans and sweets being exchanged among supporters.

The BJP and Shiv Sena followers had sensed their victory in a couple of hours of the counting. A big screen for a live telecast of the results was also installed at the Thane railway station along with a band and BJP flags ready to kickstart their victory rally.

Thane corporator Sanjay Waghule at the railway station said, "We knew BJP will win this election. We had arranged the band people yesterday itself but waited for the first three-four rounds of counting. Our MP Rajan Vichare was leading since the very beginning."

Another celebration also took place at the BJP party office at Khopat with BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar and MLC Niranjan Davkhare. The first round of results came late in Thane owing to some technical glitches in a few systems.

MP Rajan Vichare won the election by defeating NCP's Anand Paranjpe. "I have got double the votes I had last time. I have got all this love from people because of the work that I have done in these years. Definitely, Modi, Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis were always by my side and I have won because of their support. Projects related to waterfront development and railway-related issues will be on my priority list," Vichare said.

In the Kalyan-Dombivli constituency, Shrikant Shinde won against NCP leader Babaji Patil. "I was 100 per cent sure of winning smoothly. I have worked so hard in the past and will do in the future too. Health and transport facilities will be my priorities," he said.

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