The Congress party, part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, suffered a major defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The party contested 101 seats but won only 16. In northern Maharashtra, the Congress faced a significant setback when Kunal Patil was defeated by BJP's Raghavendra Patil in the Dhule Rural constituency by a margin of 66,320 votes.
Following the loss, a video went viral showing Congress supporters claiming that Patil received zero votes from Awadhan village, a Congress stronghold. The video led to protests, with several Congress leaders questioning the Election Commission’s handling of the election.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee social media president Pankhuri Pathak shared the video on social media. She wrote, “In Awadhan village in Maharashtra, 70 percent of the people are protesting because despite voting, Congress got zero votes here. The public is taking to the streets and saying this publicly. How much more proof do we need that the BJP stole votes?”
However, the Election Commission clarified that the claim was false. According to district officials, Kunal Patil received 1,057 votes in Awadhan. The Dhule district election office confirmed that four polling stations in the constituency recorded a total of 2,881 votes. Patil received votes across the four polling stations: 227 at station 247, 234 at station 248, 252 at station 249, and 344 at station 250.
Rohan Kunwar, the returning officer for rural constituencies, called the claim misleading. BJP candidate Raghavendra Patil won in Dhule Rural with 1,741 votes from Avadhan.
The Election Commission's official results, declared on November 23, showed BJP's Raghavendra Patil securing 1,70,398 votes, while Congress' Kunal Patil garnered 1,04,078 votes in Dhule Rural