PUNE: The saffron alliance suffered shock defeats in nine of the 10 constituencies spread across rural Pune with two ministers, Bala Bhegde of the BJP and
Vijay Shivtare
of the Shiv Sena, losing to
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidates.
Congress’s turncoat, Harshvardhan Patil, who joined the BJP, failed to clinch a victory against the NCP’s sitting MLA Datta Bharne in Indapur.
The NCP-Congress combine lost only Daund to the BJP. The Congress won from Bhor and Purandar constituencies. The BJP’s Daund MLA Rahul Kool who won the 2014 polls as
Rashtriya Samaj Paksha
candidate managed a slim victory margin of 746 votes.
Shivtare, a two-time sitting MLA and minister of state for water resources and water conservation, lost to the Congress’s Sanjay Jagtap in Purandar while Bhegde, also a two-time MLA and minister of state for labour welfare, lost to NCP’s Sunil Shelke in Maval. Shelke had rebelled from the BJP and switched over to the NCP.
Maval witnessed a reversal of fortune for the BJP-Sena saffron alliance after 25 years. Shelke won by a huge margin of 93,942 votes.
Key NCP candidates, including senior state leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and former assembly speaker Dilip Walse Patil retained their seats from Baramati and Ambegaon.
Indapur, which had registered one of the highest voter turnouts on October 21, proved to be a close contest with Bharane defeating Patil by a slender margin of 3,110 votes.
Congress, which had won only the Bhor constituency in Pune district in 2014, improved its tally. It retained Bhor and clinched Purandar from the Sena. Bhor, a Congress bastion, witnessed a close fight between two-time sitting MLA Sangram Thopte and Shiv Sena’s Kuldip Konde. Thopte won by 9,206 votes. The NCP benefitted from triangular fights in Khed–Alandi and Junnar constituencies. The party’s former MLA Dilip Mohite won from Khed-Alandi by defeating Shiv Sena rival Suresh Gore, who calculations were upset by the 50,000 odd votes polled by Sena rebel Atul Deshmukh.
In Junnar, Atul Benke defeated sitting MLA Sharad Sonawane, who won in 2014 on an MNS ticket, but later switched over to the Shiv Sena. Benke benefitted from Sena rebel Asha Buchake, who fought as an independent and polled 50,000-plus votes, affecting the Sena candidate’s prospects. In Shirur, NCP’s former MLA Ashok Pawar defeated BJP’s Baburao Pacharne by over 15,000 votes.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword.
Start a Conversation
Post comment