Maharashtra BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis outside the party office in Mumbai on Monday. (PTI)

Nagpur, Oct. 20: Samir Meghe of the BJP was all smiles on Sunday. The younger son of Datta Meghe, former Congress leader and one-time Sharad Pawar aide, had just sprung a surprise win.

A surprise because he was contesting his debut election not from the family turf of Wardha but from Hingna where, by his own admission, he did not know a single party worker.

Yet Samir, fielded by the BJP in place of sitting MLA Vijay Ghodmare, defeated former NCP lawmaker and local stalwart Ramesh Bang by a huge margin.

Meghe Sr, a close friend of Union minister Nitin Gadkari, had switched to the BJP soon after elder son Sagar lost the Lok Sabha election from Wardha on a Congress ticket. It wasn’t a bad move, as Samir’s victory has proved.

Meghe, 78, had declared last year, when he was still Lok Sabha member from Wardha, that he would not contest elections any more but devote himself to social work. He may now happily retire.

His loyalist and onetime Youth Congress leader Pankaj Bhoyar too won, from Wardha Assembly constituency, defeating former party colleague Shekhar Shende.

Miles away at Shrigonda in Ahmednagar, another defector — former minister and onetime NCP stalwart Babanrao Pachpute — did not enjoy similar luck, though.

A six-time legislator and a sugar baron, Pachpute had been fielded by the BJP, a party that had accused him of corruption when he was state tribal affairs minister. The voters chose Rahul Jagtap, a local NCP man.

Ajit Ghorpade, formerly with the Congress and the NCP, had recently joined the BJP in Tasgaon and vowed to defeat former state home minister R.R. Patil. But Tasgaon stood by Patil despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a massive rally for Ghorpade.

Panchayat boost

Of the about 60 candidates the BJP had poached in the last few days before nominations closed, about half have lost and half have won.

On the whole, the voters rejected those with poor track records while backing those sidelined by their own parties despite their popularity and hard work. New faces like Samir too generally found endorsement.

Following the break-up of the state’s two major political coalitions, Maharashtra had witnessed a mass of defections in the run-up to the polls. Most were engineered by the BJP, both from traditional foes and the former ally, to gain candidates in constituencies where the party was weak.

The worst sufferer was the Congress, which not only lost several potential candidates across the state but was defeated in many seats by BJP nominees who had defected from the NCP or the Shiv Sena.

Most of the defectors, like former Congress minister Sanjay Deotale who contested from Warora and lost, had been fielded from their home turfs. But some like Samir, who won from unfamiliar seats, have given the BJP a foothold in constituencies where it had none.

Whether they won or lost, one potential long-time gain the defectors may have brought the BJP is improved prospects in the local body polls due across the state in two years. Especially so in the rural bodies, where the BJP has little presence.

For instance, Sunil Deshmukh’s victory may give the BJP an edge in panchayat polls in Amravati, where the Congress and the Sena have traditionally held sway.

Deshmukh, a former Congress stalwart and minister, is a popular leader and has brought over to the BJP his own support base, which could take on the Sena and erode the Congress significantly.