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Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde defeated

Sushilkumar Shinde, the ineffective home minister in the outgoing Manmohan Singh cabinet, was defeated in Solapur constituency in western Maharashtra by his BJP rival.

Shinde has been slammed often for his lacklustre handling of the key portfolio. He was defeated by the BJP’s Sharad Bansode. Interestingly, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which includes the Shiv Sena and a few junior partners, managed to win six of the 10 seats in western Maharashtra.

While Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, managed to retain her Baramati seat, the BJP scored handsome wins in Pune, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Solapur. Anil Shirole of the BJP defeated Vishwajeet Kadam of the Congress in Pune.

In Madha, from where Pawar had won the 2009 elections (this time, the NCP boss did not contest the Lok Sabha elections, but entered parliament through the Rajya Sabha), the NCP’s Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil managed to retain the seat. The party also won the Kolhapur and Satara seats.

The Shiv Sena won the Shirur constituency, while Raju Shetty of the Swambhimaani Paksha, a junior ally, won the Hathkanangale seat.

The UPA drew a blank in the neighbouring region of Konkan, where the Shiv Sena won all the three seats. The Sena candidate defeated the sitting Congress MP, Nilesh Rane, by a massive 150,000 votes in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency.

Narayan Rane, the losing candidate’s father, who is also the state’s industries minister, quit the ministry after the defeat, owning moral responsibility for his failure to retain the seat for the party.

The BJP-Shiv Sena also won all four seats in the Mumbai region (outside of the metropolis). In Thane, the Shiv Sena candidate defeated the sitting NCP MP, while in Kalyan the Sena candidate defeated his NCP rival, Anand Paranjape, who had switched loyalties from the Sena to the NCP.

The BJP managed to win both the Bhiwandi and Palghar seats on the outskirts of Mumbai.