Ramtek by-poll shows people have rejected turncoats, : Uddhav

Nagpur, Apr 12 (UNI) Shiv Sena Working President Uddhav Thackeray today thanked people for the party's victory in the by-elections to the Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency and said the electorate had rejected turncoats.

He was speaking to newspersons here after the party's victory.

When asked if Sena's victory would discourage further defections from the party, he said, ''Samajhdar ko ishara kaafi hai (the wise will get the hint).'' Mr Thackeray dismissed as incorrect reports in a section of the local press that the party was likely to offer a Rajya Sabha membership to Congress rebel Ranjit Deshmukh, whose entry into the fray in Ramtek as an independent is considered to have indirectly helped the Shiv Sena win the by-election.

''There is nothing of the sort. Everything that is printed in newspapers is not always correct,'' he said.

He, however, said several known and unknown well-wishers had supported the party and its candidate in the by-poll in Ramtek, but refused to name any of them.

Mr Thackeray and other Shiv Sena leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ramdas Kadam, former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi, party spokesperson Neelam Gorhe and others, flew in to Nagpur late this afternoon immediately after the results of the Ramtek by-polls were announced.

Mr Prakash Jadhav, the Sena candidate who was elected, accepted the certificate of his election from Returning Officer C S Dahalkar in the presence of Mr Thackeray and the others.

The Shiv Sena leaders later met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Maharashtra unit President Nitin Gadkari at his residence here before flying back to Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Ranjit Deshmukh, who raised the banner of revolt and entered the fray in Ramtek as an independent, has said he had fought the polls to uphold the interests of the party's loyal workers.

''The outcome in the by-poll signals the victory of the Ramtek pattern over the Rane pattern,'' Mr Deshmukh said in a statement released here this evening.

Mr Deshmukh said it was time for the Congress to introspect over the repression in the party of loyal workers and those who raised their voice in the interests of the workers.

The Kisan Vikas Aghadi, an organisation that he has floated, would contest all the assembly seats in Vidarbha at the next elections, he added.

UNI