Congress breaches BJP bastion of Kasba Peth in Pune

The BJP has won this seat since 1980 except on two occasions

The nearly three-decade-old BJP bastion of Kasba Peth in the heart of the Pune city was breached by Congress on Thursday with Ravindra Dhangekar winning the polls.

Dhangekar, the joint candidate of opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, secured 73,194 votes as against BJP’s Hemant Rasane 62,244 votes - defeating his nearest rival with a margin of 10,950 votes.

The polls were necessitated because of the death of Mukta Tilak, the great-grand-daughter-in-law of revolutionary nationalist leader Lokmanya Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, BJP MLAs from Kasba Peth and Chinchwad, respectively.

In Chinchwad, BJP’s Ashwini Jagtap, the wife of late Jagtap - won the polls much on expected lines, getting 1,35,494 votes and defeating NCP’s Nana Kate (99,424 votes) and an independent candidate, Rahul Kalate (40,075 votes), a rebel of the Uddhav Thackeray-group of Shiv Sena who was backed by Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

The message was clear - for BJP not to tamper with existing permutation-combinations and for the MVA to put up a united front and sort out inter-party and intra-party differences.

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As the bypolls to Kasba Peth and Chinchwad become an issue of prestige for the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP coalition in the state as well as MVA, top leaders like Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP President Chandrashekar Bawankule and Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, state Congress President Nana Patole, Yuva Sena President Aaditya Thackeray campaigned for their respective candidates.

Mukta Tilak had won the polls in 2019.

Before that, the seat was represented for five record terms by BJP’s Girish Bapat - 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Bapat is now the BJP MP from Pune.

Celebrations broke out after the results came in with the MVA describing the win as victory of "democracy over dictatorship."

A large section of Pune residents were unhappy that the BJP had denied a ticket to the Tilak family and did not field a Brahmin candidate. An ailing Bapat, too, campaigned as he showed up in a wheelchair for a few minutes, but that had invited criticism.

Kasba Peth is the oldest residential locality of Pune, once known as Kasba Pune. It is considered the heart of Pune.

Fadnavis and Bawankule said that there would be an introspection about the defeat in Kasba Peth.

“It is people’s victory,” an elated Dhangekar said as results poured in.

“People are voting against the BJP,” said Uddhav indicating that an anti-BJP movement was picking up. “They were defeated because of the use and throw policy,” he said, referring to the denial of ticket to the Tilak family.

“It is a verdict of people against the way BJP is behaving and misusing power and money,” said Patole.

“The Kasba Peth bye-polls has proved that the MVA unitedly can defeat the BJP-led alliance in the polls ahead,” said Pawar Junior.

A senior MVA leader pointed out that the rebel in the race damaged the prospects of the NCP candidate in Chinchwad.