Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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.
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.