'This election is a 2024 election trailer'

'Modi's image is a myth.'

The Shiv Sena has achieved a milestone in its 55-year history of electoral politics.

Fort the first time since its formation in 1966, the Shiv Sena won a Lok Sabha seat outside Maharashtra -- in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Tuesday, where a by-election was held On October 30, 2021.

Shiv Sena candidate Kalaben Delkar defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mahesh Gavit by a margin of 51,269 votes.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of Kalaben's husband Independent member of the Lok Sabha, Mohan Delkar, who died by suicide in a Mumbai hotel on February 22, 2021.

The man behind the Shiv Sena's achievement is Sena MP Sanjay Raut, the strategist who ensured the Sena victory in the Lok Sabha by-poll.

"This win will be a big morale-booster for the cadres and will help the party grow outside Maharashtra," Raut tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

The Shiv Sena win in Dadra and Nagar Haveli has come as a big surprise. How is your party assessing this victory?

This victory is very important to our party. We have been contesting elections for very long in Maharashtra. From Maharashtra, we have a total of 22 members in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Our party has played an important role in Indian politics, but we never succeeded in politics outside Maharashtra. We tried to extend our party, but never got success. This is for the first time we have won an election outside Maharashtra and that too in a Union territory.

This victory will surely give a morale boost to our party workers and it is good for our party. Now our party cadres feel we can win elections outside Maharashtra, too.

It is not easy to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party. What strategy did you execute this time which was different from past election campaigns?

First, we got the right candidate for the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha constituency. This is a major advantage for us.

Second, we did a very low-profile election campaign. This we never did earlier when we used to contest elections outside Maharashtra.

This is a tribal-dominated constituency and is very close to Mumbai. Many tribals from Nashik and other tribal areas of Maharashtra have links to this place.

And let us not forget the late MP Mohan Delkar, who had died by suicide due to alleged pressure from the administration.

We told people that if you want to fight against this dictatorship of an administration, then only the Shiv Sena is the right party to fight against it.

Moreover, Delkar's family also had good contacts with the people in the constituency and our combination worked well, and you can see the result now.

Persuading Delkar's family to join the Shiv Sena and fight the bypoll must have been tough. How difficult was it for you to convince them to join the Shiv Sena?

After Mohan Delkar's death, his family was under tremendous pressure.

The Delkar family has a Robin Hood kind of image in his constituency. And still he died by suicide due to alleged torture by the government.

His family was under pressure too because his wife hadn't been active in politics. His son is young and so is his daughter.

In this situation, I told the Delkar family that only the Shiv Sena can support them in such a scenario. If we come together, we can win. They trusted us and we won the by-election.

The Dadra and Nagar Haveli win is a shot in the arm for you. Are you now going to expand the Shiv Sena outside Maharashtra more aggressively?

We have already started working in the neighbouring constituency of Daman and Diu. In South Gujarat too, we have started working and after this victory, doors have opened for us.

Slowly, we will make a team and work in other states and we are confident we will succeed in other states too.

What gives you this confidence?

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's clean image benefited us in this election. Moreover, he has a record of good governance in Maharashtra.

How do you analyse this bypoll outcome?

This bypoll was a mini general election.

In West Bengal, whatever minor presence the BJP had so far, that has finished now.

In Rajasthan, the Congress has won.

In Himachal Pradesh, all the BJP seats have gone to the Congress.

In Maharashtra, where the Congress won in Deglur, the BJP had no candidate at all. They roped in the Shiv Sena candidate to contest on a BJP ticket.

In Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the Shiv Sena won.

Except Assam, the BJP lost all the states in these by-elections. This election is a 2024 general election trailer.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has blamed inflation for the BJP's loss in the by-elections. Do you think so too?

Inflation is a problem for sure, but there are lots of local issues too. There is too much of infighting going on in the BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image is larger than life. Do you think the Opposition has a PM face for the 2024 elections?

Modi's image has been made into larger than life, but when people decide to change (leadership), they change.

BJP leaders tell us in Maharashtra that the Shiv Sena won elections on Modi's image. I want to ask a question to the same leaders: Did the Shiv Sena win Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Modi's image or what?

And for that matter our (alliance partner, the) Congress won the Deglur (assembly by-election), did they win on Modi's image too? The answer is no.

Modi's image is a myth.