Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray says BJP’s use and throw policy behind its defeat in Kasba Assembly bypoll

Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray  said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the bypoll to the Kasba Peth Assembly constituency in Maharashtra’s Pune city because of its use and throw policy.

The ruling BJP on Thursday failed to retain the Kasba seat, its stronghold, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in the bypoll. The BJP held this Assembly segment for 28 years. 

Girish Bapat, the current BJP MP from Pune, represented the seat five times till 2019. Dhangekar polled 73,194 votes while Rasane received 62,244 votes, as per figures provided by the Election Commission.

Thackeray said, I am happy that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate has won the Kasba Peth assembly segment. It is the outcome of the BJP’s policy of use and throw.

They treated us this way and now even ticket was not given to a family member of late MLA Mukta Tilak. In 2019, BJP’s Tilak had won the seat. She died after battling cancer in December 2022, which necessitated the by-election in the constituency.

They made MP Girish Bapat take part in the campaign although he was extremely sick. They want sympathy but very selectively. The voters do not accept this kind of behaviour, he said.

When asked about Chief Minister Eknath Shinde calling opposition leaders anti-nationals, he said, “Opposition leaders were invited (to the tea party hosted on the eve of the legislature session on Sunday) by the chief minister himself. Had the opposition parties attended the tea party, would he have still called them anti-nationals?