The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday faced a crushing defeat in the bypoll to Kasba Peth—its stronghold in Maharashtra's Pune district. The saffron party, which was in power in the assembly constituency for 28 years, lost the seat to the Congress.
While Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar polled 73,194 votes BJP's Hemant Rasane received 62,244 votes, as per figures on the Election Commission's website after the final round of counting. Dhangekar breached the BJP bastion with the support of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
"This is people's victory. The day I filled the nomination form, people of Kasba Peth constituency decided to make me victorious," Dhangekar said. The BJP said it would introspect what went wrong.
In 2019, BJP's Mukta Tilak had won the seat. She died after battling cancer in December 2022, which necessitated the by-election in the constituency.
The Kasba Peth bypoll was closely watched by the BJP and the Congress. The MVA's massive victory in Kasba is significant as it was the first direct contest between the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the opposing MVA after the change of the state government in June last year.
“BJP has misused power, created terror through goons, distribution of money was done. Public has given answer to it through votes,” Nana Patole, Maharashtra Congress President said as counting progressed on Thursday.
“This is an indication of the change in 2024. The BJP and their leadership in Delhi would have come to know who the real Shiv Sena is,” Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said.
In the bypoll to Chinchwad, the BJP is set to clinch the seat. The bypoll was necessitated after the death of BJP MLA Lakshman Jagtap. The party fielded the deceased MLA's wife, Ashwini Jagtap, against the MVA's Nana Kate.
The bypolls were an issue of prestige for the MVA as well as the ruling Shinde-BJP coalition in the state and top leaders like NCP president Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis campaigned for their respective candidates.
-with PTI inputs