MVA-backed Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar wins bypoll from Kasba Peth considered a BJP stronghold

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], March 2 : Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-backed Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar won the Kasba Peth bypoll in an area considered a BJP stronghold.
Dhangekar defeated BJP candidate Hemant Rasane by 10,915 votes.
According to the Election Commission of India, Congress candidate Dhangekar on Thursday polled 73,309 votes while Rasane received 62,394 votes.
After the final result of the poll, Dhangekar collected his winning certificate.
As per data released by the district information office, the total number of voters in the Kasba Peth constituency is 2,75,428 with 1,38, 550 women voters and 1,36,87 male voters and five transgender voters.
The seat was BJP's stronghold in Maharashtra's Pune district as it was in power in Kasba Peth constituency for 28 years.
Dhangekar, having the 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.
The by-election in the constituency was necessitated after BJP's Mukta Tilak died after battling cancer in December 2022.
Girish Bapat, the current BJP MP from Pune, represented the seat five times till 2019 and in 2019, Tilak had won the seat.
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.