@Evening: 🤔 How The BJP Lost A Seat It Had Held For 28 Years

⏰ Rude awakening in Pune

The BJP, which is ruling the state of Maharashtra along with Shiv Sena, suffered a major setback.

Context: The party lost the Kasba Peth assembly seat in Pune in a bypoll, after having held it for 28 years.

• Results came in Thursday evening. The BJP candidate Hemant Rasane lost by a margin of over 11,000 votes.

• Girish Bapat, until his elevation as Lok Sabha MP, was the 'undisputed king' of this seat.

• After Bapat became an MP, the seat was occupied by Mukta Tilak, another Brahmin face, hailing from the Tilak family.

• Her untimely death led to the seat falling vacant.

Diagnosis. Several reasons for this loss.

• First... The BJP lost the first battle when it was unable to counter the narrative that it had taken the Brahmin community for granted.

• Rasane belongs to the OBC community, and the Kasba Peth seat has been represented by Brahmin candidates for three decades now.

• Second... Rasane, a corporator, failed to get a good lead in his own area.

• It is believed that the sidelining of the Tilak family impacted the votes in the majority of the areas of this seat.

• Third... Bringing in an ailing Girish Bapat to campaign for Rasane.

• It is said that most voters of the BJP from the Brahmin community didn't appreciate this move.

Displeasure made known. Many openly blamed the party high command for not respecting the local sentiments.

• Many BJP voters, especially from the Brahmin community, think that their unquestioned support to the BJP was taken for granted, and hence the result.

• Though losing the seat won't impact the BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state, it will surely impact the narrative around the party.

• A jolt for the BJP has acted like a booster for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

How the BJP's taking the loss. Behind closed doors, most BJP leaders are saying this defeat was, perhaps, needed.

• This jolt, the leaders say, will act as a catalyst to awaken the central leadership, the state leaders, and also the party workers.

• A complacency had set in after the routing of the MVA government and formation of the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.

Bottom line: The Kasba Peth defeat will make many leaders in the BJP go back to the drawing table.

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