Maha bypolls: BJP loses Kasba Assembly seat after 28 yrs; 5-time corporator Ravindra Dhangekar wins it for Congress

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday failed to retain the Kasba Peth Assembly seat, its stronghold in Maharashtra's Pune district for nearly three decades, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in a keenly contested bypoll, which had become a prestige battle between the ruling coalition and the Opposition MVA.

The BJP has represented Kasba Peth in the state Assembly for the last 28 years. Girish Bapat, the current BJP Lok Sabha MP from Pune, won the prestigious seat five times till 2019.

This time, Dhangekar, having support of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Nationalist Congress Party, the Congress and the 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 leader 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 bypoll was held on February 26 and votes were counted on Thursday.

Dhangekar, who ended the BJP's five-term uninterrupted run in the Assembly constituency, had earlier stints in the undivided Shiv Sena and the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). A five-term corporator, Dhangekar started his political career with the Shiv Sena and won 1997 and 2002 civic elections in Pune as the party's candidate.

Later, he joined the MNS and won 2007 and 2012 Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections as a candidate of the Raj Thackeray-led outfit. In 2017, the local politician won civic polls for the fifth term, but this time as a Congress-sponsored candidate. In the same year, he officially joined the Congress and was rewarded by the party with an Assembly poll ticket in 2023.

Dhangekar, who has studied up to Class 8, earlier made two unsuccessful attempts to enter the Assembly. He first contested the Assembly elections in 2009 as the MNS candidate in Kasba Peth and polled more than 48,000 votes, but lost. In the 2014 state elections, Dhangekar again contested polls from the same constituency and bagged 26,000 votes.

As a corporator, Dhangekar led several agitations and highlighted issues of public interest. After winning the polls, the Congress leader in the evening visited several pilgrimage sites in the city, including the famous Kasba Ganpati. The victory of the Congress in Kasba is significant as it was the first direct contest between the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena combine and the Opposition MVA after the change of the government in the state in June last year.

"This is people's victory. The day I filled the nomination form, the people of the Kasba Peth constituency decided to make me victorious," said an elated Dhangekar, who was carried by jubilant Congress workers on their shoulders outside the counting centre after the result was declared. BJP's Rasane, while conceding defeat, said he will introspect what went wrong and where.

"Earlier, it used to be a triangular contest, but this time it was a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress," he said. Congress state vice president Mohan Joshi congratulated the Kasba Peth voters for handing over such a "historical" win to the party and the MVA. "This is the victory of all MVA workers who fought this election with great unity. This election has shown that money power cannot work," he said.

During the campaigning, the Congress and other MVA constituents had levelled allegations against the BJP of luring voters with the help of money, a charge denied by the ruling party. In Kolhapur, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut told reporters that the BJP bastion's has fallen.

"All these years, the BJP won the Kasba Peth Assembly seat because of the Shiv Sena (two parties were in an alliance earlier). Now, we are with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The BJP bastion has collapsed," said the Rajya Sabha MP. As the bypolls to Kasba and Chinchwad seats in Pune had become an issue of prestige for the MVA as well as the ruling Shinde-BJP coalition in the state, big leaders like NCP president Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis campaigned for their respective candidates.

The Congress and MVA had criticised the BJP for forcing its Lok Sabha member Girish Bapat, who is ailing, to campaign during the election. Last month, Bapat had briefly addressed party workers while sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a nasal cannula.

There was a perception that since the BJP did not give poll ticket to a family member of late MLA Mukta Tilak, Brahmin voters, who have a sizable presence in the constituency, were unhappy with the party. But, the BJP had claimed Brahmins were with them.