19 rebels without a cause

In this election, there were 65 rebel candidates in the fray. Nineteen of them emerged winners. But with the Congress-NCP combine emerging the clear winner, they did not find any takers on Thursday. In fact, the NCP defectors among the 19 were weighing options to join the Congress to remain in the government.

The giant killer among the rebels was Bharat Bhalke. He defeated Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, NCP minister for rural development, at Pandharpur. Mohite lost by 37,363 votes.

In Pune district, three prominent NCP rebels — Vilas Lande (Bhosan), Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad) and Ramesh Thorat (Daund) — claimed the seats, defeating official Congress-NCP candidates. The rebel virus had spread to Satara too, where Makarand Patil took on the official NCP candidate at Vai.

The most debated Congress rebel — the minister of state for finance Sunil Deshmukh — lost to Rajendra Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, at Amravati.

The Congress-NCP, which had been anticipating a hung assembly, established contacts with quite a few rebels in the past week. But now, having comfortably crossed the finishing line itself, the coalition was unlikely to splurge on rebels.