Maha Assembly bypoll results lesson for both BJP and MVA

The results of bypolls to two Assembly seats in Maharashtra's Pune district serve as a lesson to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get its act together and introspect, and to the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to unite for better electoral prospects, political observers feel.

Two Assembly segments in Pune district - Kasba Peth and Chinchwad - voted on February 26 in bypolls necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, respectively.

In the results declared on Thursday, the Kasba bypoll was won by the Congress, a constituent of the MVA. Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated BJP's Hemant Rasane to win this seat, which had been with the BJP since 1995.

However, BJP candidate Ashwini Jagtap, wife of late MLA Laxman Jagtap, won the Chinchwad Assembly constituency. She defeated Vitthal alias Nana Kate of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

According to a report of PTI, Senior Congress leader Ratnakar Mahajan said the Kasba bypoll result inspires the MVA, which comprises the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), to stay united. The result is people's verdict on local and state issues. There is nothing more to read into it, he said.

It also shows that common voters are devoid of caste and religious considerations and are concerned about contemporary issues like price rise and unemployment that they have to deal with in their daily life, he said.

There is a misconception that Kasba is a Brahmin-dominated constituency, Mahajan said, adding that there are 13 per cent Brahmin voters, while 60 per cent belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBC).

BJP leader Girish Bapat won five times from Kasba because of his connect with the masses and not due to his caste and there was no leader in the Congress to counter him, Mahajan said.

There is no logic in thinking that the BJP lost because members from the Lokmanya Tilak's family were ignored. Late Mukta Tilak, who represented the constituency, belonged to the family. Congress candidate Rohit Tilak, who also belongs to the same family, was defeated from this Assembly segment twice, he added.

Mahajan said sympathy factor worked for Ashwini Jagtap in Chinchwad, but it did not work in Kasba even as sitting Pune MP Girish Bapat, who is critically ill, had to step out to campaign for his party and for casting his vote.

Senior BJP leader Madhav Bhandari termed his party's defeat in Kasba Peth as an accident. No doubt, we will introspect on where we went wrong before we win back the constituency in 2024, he said.