Former underworld don wins Maharashtra seat

Gawli who contested as a candidate of Akhil Bharatiya Sena defeated Congress' Madhu Chavan by 12,674 votes in Chinchpokli.

Arun Gawli, who was dubbed a terror in India's financial capital till a few years ago, was elected to the Maharashtra Assembly on Saturday, defeating his Congress rival in a south-central Mumbai constituency.

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According to officials, Gawli, who contested as a candidate of his Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) party, defeated Madhu Chavan by 12,674 votes in Chinchpokli constituency.

Gawli served more than five years in jail on more than half a dozen charges of masterminding murders, extortions and assaults.

The son of a textile mill worker and a school dropout was banned some time ago from entering the municipal limits of Mumbai for two years.

Mumbai Police had once described him as one of the biggest underworld dons in India. Many of Gawli's associates have been killed in gun battles with the police or with rival gangs.

Despite all this, the father of four has managed to raise his political ambitions by floating ABS in 1996 because he had not been convicted in any of the cases in the absence of sufficient evidence.

"So many people are after my life but my only strength is that the people are with me," Gawli had told IANS while campaigning for himself in the run up to the election on Wednesday.