Trupti Sawant: My supporters and I gave the Shiv Sena a tough fight

Defeated Trupti Sawant, who rebelled against the Sena, says MNS being in the picture reduced her vote share

Trupti Sawant, wife of late Bala Sawant, who was considered as the blue-eyed boy of Matoshree after winning the Bandra East seat for the second time, has been a factor in Shiv Sena's candidate and Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar being defeated. After the the result, Team mid-day met Sawant at her residence, which is a five-minute walking distance from Matoshree.

How do you look at this defeat?

We are not considering this as a defeat. We have given a tough fight. Had the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate not taken votes, the picture would have been different. And do you think any Sena corporator will win from this place again? We wanted to show how many people still love Bala Sawant and are still on his side. And we have been successful.

But you did contribute in defeating the Sena candidate in Sena's bastion.

This was never a Sena bastion. It was and always will be Bala Sawant's bastion. He built it by defeating Congress. He won in 2009 and again in 2014, despite battling cancer at that time. He was so unwell that we campaigned for him. After his demise in 2015, Sena asked me to contest the by-election as they feared the seat will go to Congress. They didn't have the courage to fight Narayan Rane. If they wanted some another candidate then why they choose me back then?

Don't you think Balasaheb Thackeray would have been hurt by you rebelling?

I don't like the poll result either. But did the Sena think of us even once when we Sena workers were waiting for news on the candidacy for a week? These workers (points towards Sena workers at her residence) were sitting at Matoshree till midnight. What did they do with them? Were they merciful? They called the police instead.

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