The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance retained their traditional bastion of Konkan, but for the Raigad seat which they lost to NCP's Sunil Tatkare. In the Last general election, Tatkare lost by a margin of only 1,700 votes.
Tatkare defeated Sena's Anant Gite by 31,000 votes, which, political experts say is a big setback to Sena in Konkan. "The Sindhudurg seat was retained because of the triangular contest between Sena-BJP, Maharashtra Swabhimani party and Congress-NCP," said one expert.
He added that while Sena retained its forts in Thane and Kalyan, Palghar is a fresh victory. Analysts unequivocally agree that Sena played it smart by joining hands with the BJP, which helped harvest impressive victories with little effort.
In Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Vinayak Raut defeated Nilesh Rane by 1.77 lakh votes. In Palghar, Baliram Jadhav (Bahujan Vikash Aghadi) lost to Sena's Rajendra Gavit by 88,000 votes. Kapil Patil (BJP) won in Bhiwandi, Shrikant Shinde in Kalyan and Rajan Vichare in Thane.
