Crucial poll battles throw up surprises

NASHIK: Sanjay Chavhan, former president of the NMC's standing committee and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) rebel, finally pipped NCP's city unit president Gajanan Shelar in the prestigious battle for ward 54. The contest between the two leaders from the same party gathered attention when both of them were denied the seat in ward 29 (B) and both tried their best to get a party nomination in ward 54.However, as the party chose to support its city unit president, Chavhan preferred fighting the election as an independent candidate, a decision that triggered the first incident of poll violence in the city.
Bagging nine of the 24 seats in 11 wards of the Nashik East division, the MNS equaled the tally of the NCP-Congress front, which bagged bagging six and three seats respectively, even as BJP managed to win two seats and the Shiv Sena managed to open its account.
While the Chavhan (972 votes)-Shelar (802 votes) battle was the most talked about, disheartening defeats like those of Amol Jadhav, the sitting corporator and office-bearer of the Youth Congress, from ward 53, Vandana Manchanda of the Congress and Mushir Sayyed were also reported in the division.
Among the prominent winners were Shahu Khaire and Vatsala Khaire, from ward 27-A and B, Rahul Dive from ward 31-B, Sanjay Sable from 28-A and Sufi Jin from 26-A from the Congress, Vinayak Khaire from the NCP, Satish Kulkarni of the BJP from ward 38-A, and Sachin Marathe from the Shiv Sena. This is the fourth time that Kulkarni has been elected to the house.
BJP's Satish Shukla, who challenged the allotment of polling stations in the ward in the High Court, lost the battle. Sunil Khode (MNS), Anil Tazanpure (Shiv Sena) and Gopal Patil (BJP) are among the top losers. The Nashik East division also saw the MNS dethroning most of the parties from the second position, even if it failed to clinch the top award in the ward.