Setback to Shiv Sena as BJP wins Sindhudurg District Coop Bank polls

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback after the BJP won the Sindhudurg District Central Cooperative Bank elections on Friday. A panel, owing allegiance to Union minister Narayan Rane, got 11 out of the 19 seats in the bank, trouncing the MVA candidates.

The three MVA constituents -- Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress -- had joined hands to thwart Rane's influence in the bank. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had even campaigned in Sindhudurg for the MVA panel.

The elections were acrimonious and controversial as Rane's son and BJP MLA Nitesh was booked for allegedly trying to attack a local Shiv Sena leader Santosh Parab. Parab, in his complaint, had claimed that there was a murder attempt on him on December 18 at the behest of Nitesh Rane. The Kankavli police in Sindhudurg are on the look-out to arrest Nitesh and had even sent a summons to the Union minister seeking to question him on the whereabouts of his son.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis described the case against Nitesh and the summons by the police to Rane as tactics by the state government to terrorise its political opponents.

An elated Rane, who flew to Sindhudurg from Mumbai, credited the BJP for the win. The minister said: "The government and the police foisted a fake case to win the elections. The person on whom there was a murder attempt and was hospitalised is actually walking around after the so-called assault. They were using the government machinery and police to win the elections," the Union minister said on Friday.