Pune (Maharashtra) [India], November 22 : Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly Election results announcement on November 23, the Kasba Peth assembly constituency in Pune, one out of a total of eight seats is gearing up for a fierce battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC).
The constituency is particularly significant as the BJP seeks to reclaim its bastion from the Congress.
Pune NCP President, Deepak Mankar, who has major support in the Kasba Peth constituency expressed confidence that the Mahayuti alliance would reclaim the seat from Congress's sitting MLA Ravindra Dhangekar.
Mankar attributed this confidence to the alliance's hard work and the additional strength brought by the NCP's partnership with the BJP.
Speaking to ANI, Mankar said "Every party worker from the alliance had worked hard to reclaim it from Congress's sitting MLA Ravindra Dhangekar. During the bypoll, Ravindra Dhangekar won the seat by flook...and since NCP (United) was not in alliance during the bypoll, it helped Congress but now NCP is with BJP therefore the additional strength will make sure BJP's Candidate Hemant Rasane will win the seat this time.
Further, Mankar said that Congress's sitting MLA Dhangekar had done nothing for the people except publicity stunts.
"Ravindra Dhangekar after winning bypoll has done nothing for people in the constituency except some stunts for publicity during his tenure. Therefore we are confident that Mahayuti's candidate Hemant Rasane will win the seats 100 percent," Mankar said.
BJP candidate Hemant Rasane is optimistic about winning the Kasba Peth election, citing the voters' dissatisfaction with Dhangekar's tenure.
Rasane highlighted the aggressive campaign launched by the alliance partners which received positive feedback from the constituency.
Speaking to ANI, Rasane said " I am confident of win the Kasba Peth election this time as voters know that Dhangekar did not do much for the constituency in one-and-a-half years. Our alliance partners have taken up an aggressive campaign in the constituency this time. The party workers have been covering all the areas, and there has been positive feedback.."
Rasne has been meeting people from different areas of the constituency.
Foot campaigns have been taking place almost every day. The rallies continued till the last day of campaigning.
Kasba Peth is the smallest assembly constituency in the district, with 2,83,635 voters, compared to Chinchwad's 6,63,622 voters--the highest in the district. Despite its size, the constituency displayed strong voter enthusiasm, recording a 58.77 cent turnout by late afternoon.
Challenges for Ravindra Dhangekar also come from senior Congress leader Kamal Vyavahare who contested as an independent candidate after the party denied her a ticket.
This could create a major division of votes in the Constituency. On the other hand, Rasne pacified the BJP rebels to avoid any division of votes.
Meanwhile, Senior Congress leader from Pune, Mohan Joshi added," The people of Maharashtra are fed up with BJP and its alliance partners due to the issues of unemployment, inflation and their fake promises. Therefore whatever claim they are making has no sense and MVA will win in Maharashtra including Kasba Peth assembly seats. Our candidate and sitting MLA will repeat by poll results."
After the demise of Mukta Tilak who had won the seats in the 2019 Assembly election, Congress Ravindra Dhangekar won the by-poll in 2022 and defeated Hemant Narayan Rasane of the BJP by a margin of 10,915 votes.
Later Ravindra Dhangekar also contested in the Lok Sabha elections against BJP's Murlidhar Mohol on Pune seats but lost with a huge margin of more than 1.5 lakh.