Rutuja Latke won the bypoll by bagging more than 66,000 votes, followed by 12,806 votes polled in favour of the None Of The Above (NOTA) option
Rutuja Latke at Matoshree on Sunday. Pic/ Rane Ashish
Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar on Sunday said Rutuja Latke of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) won the Andheri (East) Assembly bypoll here because his party did not field a candidate against her.
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Speaking to reporters, he said the Thackeray-led Sena could not increase its vote share despite having the support of the Congress and National Congress Party (NCP).
Congratulating Latke, Shelar said, "Had BJP contested the election, they (Maha Vikas Aghadi combine) would have lost for sure."
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule also downplayed the victory of the Thackeray camp, claiming that the result was a foregone conclusion the moment his party decided not to field a candidate in the bypoll.
He brushed aside any role of the BJP in the sizable NOTA (none of the above) votes polled in the bypoll.
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"Once the BJP withdraws from the fray, it will not indulge in such activities like casting NOTA votes," Bawankule asserted.
Slamming Shelar for his remarks, the NCP said he and his party were behaving like the fox from a fable, who said that grapes were sour as he could not get them.
NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto said, "Shelar and BJP's reaction that 'had we contested the Andheri East Assembly by-election, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate Rutuja Latke's defeat was certain' is like the fox who said 'grapes are sour' when he could not get them because they was out of his reach."
Rutuja Latke won the bypoll by bagging more than 66,000 votes, followed by 12,806 votes polled in favour of the None Of The Above (NOTA) option. The November 3 byelection, necessitated due to the death of sitting Shiv Sena MLA and her husband Ramesh Latke in May this year, was a mere formality after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its candidate - Murji Patel - from the race.
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