Maharashtra: BJP loses prestigious byelection in Ulhasnagar

ULHASNAGAR: In a major setback ahead of assembly election in Ulhasnagar, the BJP and its local joint alliance candidate lost UMC (Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation) byelection against RPI candidate in Ulhasnagar on Monday.
The seat was being held by BJP since many years. However BJP’s city president Kumar Ailani blamed their alliance TOK (Team Omie Kalani) party for the defeat saying TOK chief Omie Kalani had given ticket to a candidate from their quota from outside ward resulting in to their defeat.
On Sunday voting was held on panel number 1 after UMC disqualified corporator Pooja Bhoir from seat over her bogus caste certificate. On voting day out of 23852 voters 5260 voters contested their votes. On Monday during counting, BJP candidate Vanita Bhoir lost election by 313 votes. Bhoir secured 2324 votes while RPI candidate Mangal Waghe managed to secure 2637 votes while congress candidate Nitin Meshram secured only 173 votes. The result have raised question over popularity of powerful Kalani family in Ulhasnagar. However a TOK leader did not wished to be named blamed local BJP leaders for deliberately defeating BJP on seat so that Kalani family who has MLA from Ulhasnagar assembly seat may not get BJP ticket in upcoming assembly seat.