There were several tense moments during counting on Thursday.
Initially, Rajendrasinh was trailing by over 2,000 votes, then he gained a lead over his rival only to trail Deshmukh, but after the end of seventh round he gained lead which he maintained till the end.
Deshmukh, who had held the seat for two consecutive terms, was bitter after he was denied a ticket in favour of Shekhawat and had contested as an independent.
Outsider factor
Rajendrasinh resides in Mumbai and was an outsider for voters in Amravati.
It was significant that both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul skipped Amravati during their campaign tour of Vidarbha.
Around noon, the mood in the Shekhawat camp was that of pessimism.
The television channels also started running stories of Rajendrasinh’s imminent defeat, causing lot of embarassment to the Congress participants in various shows.
Truly, it would have been a huge embarassment had Rajendrasinh lost the election to a rebel, he being the son of no less than the President of India.
The anchors started asking questions whether it was a wise move to field the President’s son and many participants actually conceded the point. But everything changed by 3.00 pm when Shekhawat’s victory became certain.
Three daughters
Rajendrasinh was not the only offspring of a powerful politician to have made it at the hustings.
There were others too. Three daughters of influential leaders made it to the Assembly, defeating their rival candidates.
From Solapur constituency, Praniti Shinde, daughter of Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, was elected.
From Parli in Beed district, the senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde-Palwe won while from Dharavi constituency in Mumbai, it was the turn of Varsha Gaikwad, daughter of the Congress MP Eknath Gaikwad.
However, Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, suffered a huge defeat from Ghatkopar (west) constituency in Mumbai.
And the sons
Among the sons who were elected was Amit Deshmukh, son of Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was elected from Latur constituency.
He is the chairman of the local sugar factory and is perceived to be political heir of Vilasrao.
Two father-son pairs have also entered the Assembly. One is that of Bhujbals and another is Naiks, both from the NCP. Chhagan Bhujbal, who is the deputy chief minister, was elected from Yevla, while his son Pankaj was elected from Nandgaon, both from Nasik district.
Labour Minister Ganesh Naik was elected from Belapur constituency, while his son Sandeep Naik was elected from Airoli constituency.
Both these constituencies are in Navi Mumbai.
It was a sweet personal revenge for Omraje Nimbalkar of Shiv Sena, whose father Pavanraje Nimbalkar was gunned down in a political murder three years ago near Navi Mumbai.
The chief accused in that murder case is the disgraced NCP MP and Sharad Pawar’s distant relative Padmasinh Patil.
Padmasinh’s son Rana Jatagsinh contested from Osmanabad against Nimbalkar and lost. Padmasinh is currently out on bail.
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