Friday, January 28 2005 14:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Congress today (Jan 28, 2005) suffered a setback when it lost its traditional Solapur (south) Assembly seat to Shiv Sena but retained Nagpur (south) Assembly constituency, the by-poll for which were held on January 24.

Congress lost its pocket-borough of Solapur (south) seat, when Shiv Sena candidate Ratikant Patil defeated Congress nominee Rajshekhar Shivdare by 1609 votes.

Patil secured 50,791 votes while Shivdare bagged 49,184 votes, election office sources said.

The seat was held by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who vacated it after being appointed the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Congress retained the Nagpur (south) Assembly seat when its candidate Dinanath Padole defeated his nearest rival Ashok Mankar by 2227 votes in a keenly contested election.

Padole has polled 30073 votes against Mankar who got 27846 votes. Sulekha Kumbahare (Ind) finished third with 26,752 votes while Congress rebel Abhijit Wanjari (Ind), son of deceased MLA secured 19,156 votes, securing the fourth position. BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) nominee Ashok Yeole could not cross the four digit mark and could bag only 6885 votes.

With this Congress has increased its tally in the Legislative Assembly to 68, while its coalition partner NCP has 71 seats and Shiv Sena tally goes up to 63.