Kasba Peth by poll result: BJP seat of 28 years wrested by Congress in Maharashtra

India

oi-Prakash KL

The
Bharatiya
Janata
Party
has
lost
the
Kasba
Peth
Assembly
constituency
which
has
been
with
the
saffron
party
for
over
two
decades.

Congress
candidate
Ravindra
Dhangekar
defeated
the
BJP’s
Hemant
Rasane
in
the
by-poll.
Dhangekar
polled
73,194
votes
while
Rasane
received
62,244
votes,
as
per
figures
on
the
Election
Commission’s
website
after
the
final
round
of
counting.

The
Kasba
Peth
Assembly
constituency
was
always
considered
as
a
stronghold
of
the
BJP
and
the
party
has
retained
the
seat
for
the
last
28
years.
Girish
Bapat,
the
current
BJP
MP
from
Pune,
represented
the
seat
five
times
till
2019.

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,
located
in
the
old
area
of
Pune
city.
However,
Dhangekar,
with
the
support
of
the
Maha
Vikas
Aghadi
comprising
the
Nationalist
Congress
Party,
Congress
and
Shiv
Sena
(Uddhav
Balasaheb
Thackeray),
managed
to
breach
the
BJP’s
stronghold.

It
has
to
be
noted
that
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.

“This
is
people’s
victory.
The
day
I
filled
the
nomination
form,
people
of
Kasba
Peth
constituency
decided
to
make
me
victorious,”
said
an
elated
Dhangekar,
who
was
seen
being
carried
by
Congress
workers
on
their
shoulders
outside
the
votes
counting
centre
here
after
the
result
was
declared.

BJP’s
Rasane,
while
conceding
defeat,
said
he
as
a
candidate
failed
in
this
election
and
will
introspect
what
went
wrong
and
where.
“Earlier,
it
used
to
be
a
triangular
contest,
but
this
time
it
was
a
straight
fight
between
the
BJP
and
the
Congress,”
he
said.

As
the
bypolls
to
Kasba
and
Chinchwad
seats
in
Pune
had
become
an
issue
of
prestige
for
the
MVA
as
well
as
the
ruling
Shinde-BJP
coalition
in
the
state,
big
leaders
like
NCP
president
Sharad
Pawar,
Chief
Minister
Eknath
Shinde
and
Deputy
CM
Devendra
Fadnavis
campaigned
for
their
respective
candidates.

Why
BJP
Lost
The
Seat?
The
BJP’s
decision
to
deny
ticket
to
a
family
member
of
Mukta
Tilak
possibly
led
to
the
defeat
of
its
candidate.
It
was
said
that
the
Brahmin
community
was
not
happy
with
the
saffron
party
fielding
Hemant
Rasane.
Notably,
Mukta
Tilak’s
husband
and
son
did
not
campaign
for
the
BJP
candidate.