The Shiv Sena wrested victory from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the municipal by-poll in Navi Mumbai. Polls were conducted in two wards here, in Airoli Wards No 7 and 2 where Vijay Chougule and Kishore Gaikar emerged victorious respectively.

Chougule defeated Anil Gavate from the NCP by a convincing margin of 2,244 votes from Ward No 7 while Gaikar defeated NCP’s Gopal Mahale by 569 votes from Ward No 2.

Chougule had quit the NCP after he parted ways with his one-time mentor Ganesh Naik to join the Shiv Sena. The election contest was more between these two giants than the two political parties.

To defeat Chougule, Naik and his son Sandeep had applied for the post of election agent, but had been refused.

Meanwhile, in Thane, the Shiv Sena won the by-election in Ward No 96 of the Kalwa Ward Committee. Ganesh Salvi, who had quit the Congress to join the Shiv Sena was contesting against a Samajwadi Party candidate.

Salvi won the elections by mere a 336 votes. Interestingly, though Salvi had quit the Congress, the party did not field a candidate against Salvi.