Maharashtra: BJP Loses In Kasba Peth After 28 Years; Congress Candidate Wins

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday failed to retain Kasba Peth Assembly seat, its stronghold in Maharashtra's Pune district, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in the bypoll.

The BJP was in power in Kasba Peth constituency for 28 years. Girish Bapat, the current BJP MP from Pune, represented the seat five times till 2019.

This time, Dhangekar, having 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.

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.

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.

The victory of Congress 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.

Reportedly, there was a perception that since the BJP did not give a ticket to any family member of Tilak, the Brahmin voters, having a sizeable number in the constituency, were unhappy.

With inputs from PTI.