By TCN News,
Mumbai: Samajwadi Party candidate and son of Abu Asim Azmi, Farhan Azmi has lost to Shiv Sena candidate Rupesh Mhatre today in the by-election for Bhiwandi East Assembly seat in Maharashtra. The election for the seat was held on January 20 after Azmi senior vacated it as he had also won Mankhurd (in Mumbai) seat in the last state assembly elections.
Shiv Sena candidate Rupesh Mhatre defeated his nearest rival Farhan Azmi by a margin of 1,676 votes. Mhatre bagged 35,376 votes against Azmi’s 33,700. Congress candidate Muzaffar Hussain, an MLC, finished third bagging 24,418 votes. The constituency is dominated by the minority community. It is clear that division of votes between Congress and the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party paved the way for Sena’s victory.
Shiv Sena’s Yogesh Patil had won the seat in the 2004 Assembly election, but it was snatched by SP in last year’s poll. SP leader Amar Singh, who recently resigned from all party posts, campaigned for Farhan, while chief minister Ashok Chavan canvassed for Hussain.