Elections 98

State:	Maharashtra
Constituency:	Ahmednagar
Total Votes Polled:	671532
Winner: SHS	E.V. Alias Balasaheb Vikhe Patil	323024
Runner Up: INC	Maruti Devram Alias Dada Patil Shelke	308779
Margin: 14245 (4%)

Elections 96

State:	Maharashtra
Constituency:	Ahmednagar
Total Votes Polled:	569866
Winner: INC	Maruti Deoram Alias Dada Patil Shelk	212751
Runner Up: SHS	Damaniya Parvez Cawas	163342
Margin: 49409 (8.92%)

Barring the election of an Independent candidate in 1957, this constituency has always voted Congress, its traditional votebank not abandoning the party even if it did elsewhere in the country. In 1996, the Shiv Sena fielded poultry pasha Parvez Damania against the Congress. The result was not chicken feed, and Parvez -- a close friend of Sena leader-in-waiting Raj Thackeray -- lost by nearly 50,000 votes. What mattered was that Independent Tukaram Gadakh, who came third, managed to mop up almost 120,000 votes which could have gone anywhere.