Mumbai: Fifteen months after being voted to power in Maharashtra, Congress emerged as the single largest party in the state assembly as it won all the three assembly bypolls held on January 21.
With this victory, Congress now has 72 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly, and overtakes NCP, its ruling partner in the DF government, that has 71 members in the House.
The Sena, which lost all the three seats to Congress, now has 59 MLAs and its ally BJP has 54 members in the Assembly.
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane supporters hailed the victory in the polls, which were previously held by Shiv Sena members.
These Sainiks had later joined Congress following former Sena leader Rane's entry into the party.
Tuesday's victory has strengthened Rane's claims over the top job in the state, they said.
"Our next target is Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections due in 2007", an associate of Rane said.
The assembly by-polls were necessitated following resignation by three Shiv Sena MLAs-- Shankar Kambli (Vengurla), Subhash Bane (Sangmeshwar) and Ganpat Kadam (Rajapur), who quit Assembly and followed former Sena leader Rane into Congress.
Sena had fielded former Minister Ravindra Mane from Sangmeshwar assembly constituency while Ramesh Naik and Rajan Salvi were Sena nominees from Vengurla and Rajapur constituencies respectively.
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