People considering BJP alternative: Sharad Pawar at BJP’s Kasba poll debacle

Congress’s Ravindra Dhangekar celebrate his victory in Pune. Pic/PTI

With the BJP losing its bastion of Kasba Peth in Pune city to the Congress in the recently-held Assembly bypoll, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said the development indicated that winds of change were blowing across the country. The former Union minister was speaking to reporters at Baramati, his hometown in Pune district. "BJP's defeat in the Kasba Peth Assembly bypoll proves that people are considering an alternative. Winds of change are blowing across the country," he said.

The BJP on Thursday failed to retain the Kasba Peth Assembly seat, its stronghold for nearly three decades, as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in a keenly contested bypoll, which had become a prestige battle between the ruling coalition and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Girish Bapat, the current BJP Lok Sabha MP from Pune, won the prestigious seat five times till 2019. The bypoll was held on February 26 and votes were counted on Thursday.

Also Read: Kasba bypoll: Winds of change blowing across country, says Sharad Pawar on BJP's defeat

Allies against BJP can win big

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said the victory of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the Kasba Peth bypoll was just a glimpse and claimed the MVA can win over 200 assembly and 40 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra next year if the allies fight unitedly.

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