Shiv Sena offered me ticket for Ramtek bypoll: Congress rebel

MUMBAI: Congress rebel Ranjit Deshmukh on Tuesday said Shiv Sena had offered him a ticket to contest the recent Ramtek Lok Sabha bypoll, which was won by the saffron outfit.

"Sena had offered me the ticket," Deshmukh, who contested the April 9 by-election unsuccessfully, told reporters at Vidhan Bhawan.

The former MPCC President was expelled from Congress on eve of the Ramtek polls for "anti-party activities".

He polled around 80,000 votes, thereby ensuring defeat of official Congress candidate and victory of Sena nominee, who won by around 37,000 votes in the constituency near Nagpur.

Deshmukh, a former state minister, claimed credit for ending the `Rane pattern', a reference to Revenue Minister and Congress leader Narayan Rane's move of getting his supporters to desert Sena and contest as Congress nominees.

Six of the seven Sena MLAs, who quit the party and joined Congress, were re-elected in the subsequent bypolls.

In Ramtek also, sitting Sena MP Subodh Mohite quit the seat and the Sena and followed Rane into Congress. He then contested Ramtek bypoll as a Congress nominee.

Rane has blamed Mohite's defeat to "sabotage" by some Congress leaders.

Stating that he supported a separate Vidarbha state, Deshmukh, who hails from the region, said he would highlight the issue of farmer suicides.