Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Shiv Sena candidate defeats Congress stalwart Mukul Wasnik by 1.75 lakh margin
By Dheeraj Fartode
Springing surprise, low profile Shiv Sena candidate for Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency Kripal Tumane on Friday defeated Congress stalwart Mukul Wasnik with a huge margin of 1,75,791 votes. Tumane bagged 5,19,892 votes while Wasnik, a former Union Minister and AICC General Secretary could secure only 3,44,101 votes.
Tumane had narrowly lost 2009 elections to Wasnik and victory margin was merely 16,701 votes. Last time Wasnik had bagged 3.11 lakh votes while Tumane had to content with 2.94 lakh votes. But on Friday, Tumane snatched this constituency back from Congress by defeating a giant. Sena had retained Ramtek Lok Sabha seat in 1999, 2004 and in 2006 by-polls.
Tumane established early lead which swelled till the last. During all the 19 rounds of counting, Sena and BJP workers were un upbeat mood while Congress camp was quite nervous once it became clear that Tumane was all set to romp home.
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| Kripal Tumane |
Bahujan Samaj Party’s Kiran Premkumar Rodge-Patankar got 95,051 votes and was placed third while Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Pratap Goswani was distant fourth with only 25,899 votes. Both of them lost the deposit. Ramtek MLA Ashish Jaiswal, Kamptee MLA Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Umrer MLA Sudhir Parve, Hingna MLA Vijay Ghodmare and other BJP, Sena, RPI leaders were present throughout the counting to witness this historic victory of an ordinary Sena worker.
In the first round itself, Tumane got 24,516 votes as against 18,627 polled by Wasnik and registered a moderate lead of 5,889 votes. He continued his lead throughout the counting process. As compared to Nagpur, Tumane added 3000-5000 lead with every round and by eighth round established an unassailable lead of 60,875 which touched one lakh in 12th round and by the end of counting, a humble looking Tumane achieved an impossible task of defeating one of the senior-most Congress leader of national stature by a huge margin of 1.75 lakh votes.
Tumane also topped in postal ballots. He got 678 postal ballots votes while Wasnik got support of 215 postal ballots. BSP’s Rodge-Patankar obtained 60 and AAP’s Goswami secured 52 postal ballot votes.
The BJP-Sena-RPI-Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana alliance leaders held a huge public meeting at Kanhan on last day of campaign which was addressed by Sena President Uddhav Thackeray. The assembly constituencies represented by BJP and Sena members gave massive lead to Tumane. Though Congress got a shot in arm when BREM founder and former minister Sulekha Kumbhare declared support to Wasnik and BSP’s candidate Prakash Tembhurne who had secured 62,000 votes too had declared support to Wasnik. Despite intensive campaign by Wasnik, Congress leaders led by Rajendra Mulak, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anil Deshmukh, Saoner MLA Sunil Kedar, the BJP-Sena leaders captured this rural constituency by their whirlwind propaganda.
Apparently, the Modi Wave, effective co-ordination between BJP and Sena leaders and workers who worked in tandem helped Tumane in snatching Ramtek seat from Congress. Elated Sena workers burst crackers and distributed sweets across Ramtek constituency and congratulated each other over this commendable achievement.
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