Shiv Sena defeats BJP in Mumbai civic bypoll
Mumbai, Jan 10: The Shiv Sena on Friday won the by-election from the ward no. 141 of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in suburban Mankhud, said officials.
Polling in the ward took place on Thursday and votes were counted on Friday.
Sena candidate Vithhal Lokare defeated his nearest rival, Bablu Panchal of the BJP, by a margin of 1,385 votes, they said.
Lokare secured 4,427 votes, while the BJP candidate got 3,042 in the ward located in Mankhurd in Mumbai's suburban district, the officials said.
A total of 18 candidates were in the fray in the ward where the bypoll was necessitated after Lokare, who was the sitting Congress corporator, resigned and joined the Shiv Sena in August 2019.
Lokare later contested the October assembly polls from the Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar Constituency on Sena ticket but lost to Samajwadi legislator Abu Azmi by a margin of 25,000 votes.
The BMC, India's richest civic body ruled by the Sena, has a total of 227 numbers of seats.
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Kulkarni became victim of BJP conspiracy as he grew politically in North Karnataka: Shivakumar
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Bengaluru (PTI): Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar claimed on Friday that Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case, has become a victim of a BJP conspiracy because he was growing politically in the north Karnataka region.
Stating that he has faith in Kulkarni and believes he has done nothing wrong, he said the former minister will fight the case legally by filing an appeal.
A Bengaluru court on Friday sentenced Kulkarni and fifteen others to life imprisonment in the BJP leader Yogeshgouda Goudar murder case.
On Wednesday, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, Judge of the Special Court for cases involving elected representatives, convicted Kulkarni and others under various IPC sections, including criminal conspiracy and murder.
“I respect the court. But there was a big conspiracy in this case. When the police were about to file a B-report, the CBI was given the case to harass him (Kulkarni). Vinay Kulkarni has become a victim of a BJP conspiracy as he was growing politically in north Karnataka,” Shivakumar said.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, he said Kulkarni has several legal options.
“I have spoken to his family. He swore on God and told me that he had not done anything wrong. I still have faith in him. I feel that he has not done anything wrong. He has an opportunity to file an appeal,” he said, adding that he stands with Kulkarni’s family and supporters and believes he will get justice.
The case pertains to the killing of Goudar, a BJP zilla panchayat member, in Dharwad on June 15, 2016. Kulkarni was a minister at the time. Hired assailants allegedly attacked and hacked Goudar to death in his gym in Saptapur, Dharwad.
Following demands from Goudar’s family and others, the then-BJP government transferred the case to the CBI in 2019.
Veteran BJP leader and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, under whose tenure the case was handed over to the CBI, told reporters in Chikkamagaluru, “I said what I needed to say when the crime happened, and what I said—that the guilty should be punished and justice should be served—has proven true.”
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, BJP leader and MLC C T Ravi, reacting to the court order, said, “Justice delayed, but not denied.”
