Pune: Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar has defeated BJP candidate Hemant Rasane in the Kasba Assembly by-election in Pune. Dhangekar won by a margin of about 11040 votes. The victory of the Congress candidate in the Kasba Peth constituency, which is the traditional constituency of the BJP, is being considered a big blow for the BJP. Dhangekar got 72599 votes against Hemant Rasane's 61771 after round 20 of counting.
The counting of votes started at 8 am. Dhangekar was leading from the postal poll. Rasane could not get ahead of Dhangekar in any round of vote counting. In the by-poll to Chinchwad, BJP’s Ashwini Jagtap is leading by nearly 5,000 votes while NCP’s Nana Kate and Independent candidate Rahul Kalate trail
The by-election of the Kasba constituency was announced due to the death of BJP MLA Mukta Tilak. At the beginning of this election, it was thought that BJP will announce the candidature from the Tilak family. However, it was said that the Brahmin community, which is the majority here, was upset because BJP nominated Hemant Rasane. The impact is clear from these results.
Interestingly, many state cabinet ministers, BJP-Shinde group MLAs, MPs, and central ministers were present for Rasane's campaign. However, due to this defeat, it is seen that the voters have completely rejected the BJP. The leaders of Mahavikas Aghadi had put their full strength into the campaign. Along with Congress leaders, NCP leader Ajit Pawar and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) party leader Aaditya Thackeray also campaigned for Dhangekar by holding meetings and road shows.
