By Apurva Bhatt
The Congress party has officially nominated former Maharashtra Chief Minister arayan Rane as its candidate for the April 11 by-election from Bandra-East assembly constituency.
On the other hand its rival Shiv Sena will field Trupti, widow of Prakash Sawant, who was elected in 2014, while the BJP will support her. It was a hectic Sunday for Narayan Rane, who met NCP chief Sharad Pawar to secure his support, “"I lengthy meet with Sharad Pawar. He has agreed to support my candidature. I am confident of a victory in view of the change in the political situation,'' Rane said
Rane also had a prolonged meeting with state Congress president Ashok Chavan. Rane claimed that it would be a cake-walk for him due to the dwindling influence of the BJP and Sena. "In 2014, it was a different political situation. Then there was a pro-Modi mood, now people have lost faith in Modi and the Devendra Fadnavis government has failed on all fronts in the last four months,'' Rane said.
In the 2014 assembly polls, Sena nominee Sawant had secured 40,884 votes, while BJP nominee Krishna Parkar had secured 25,463 votes, MIM's Siraj Khan 19,856 and Congress nominee Sanjeev Bagdi 11,452.
