Pune: Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar was ahead of his rivals in Kasba Peth Assembly seat, while Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ashwini Jagtap was leading in Chinchwad seat, as per the latest trends available of counting underway Thursday for bypolls to two seats in Maharashtra’s Pune district.
In the Kasba seat, Dhangekar polled 34,701 votes after the ninth round of counting and took a lead over BJP candidate Hemant Rasane, who has so far received 30,258 votes, according to election officials.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee vice president and former MLC Mohan Joshi claimed victory for Dhangekar as Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) workers broke into a celebration outside the counting centre.
In the bypoll to Chinchwad, an industrial town near Pune, BJP’s Jagtap bagged 21,238 votes after the sixth round of counting, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Nana Kate got 17,927 votes, while Shiv Sena (UBT)rebel Rahul Kalate, who contested as an independent, polled 7,901 votes, they said.
The byelections necessitated due to the death of incumbent BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak (Kasba) and Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad), were held February 26, registering an average voter turnout of 50 percent.
The polls pitted the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena against the MVA alliance of the Congress, Nationalist NCP and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
In the Kasba constituency, located in the old area of Pune city, the MVA is backing Congress candidate Dhangekar.
PTI