After senior leaders campaigned for their respective candidates ahead of the Kasba Assembly bypoll, women leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the BJP are now holding rallies and road shows in support of their parties’ nominees.
The Kasba bypoll, to be held on February 26, is witnessing a direct fight between Hemant Rasane of the BJP and Congress’s Ravindra Dhangekar. The election for the Kasba seat was necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP legislator Mukta Tilak.
The constituency has been a bastion of the BJP for a long time and the party has won the seat in the last few decades. The BJP is fighting to retain the seat but its decision to field a non-Brahmin candidate while denying the ticket to Tilak’s family member has given an opportunity for the Opposition to pose a tough challenge in its turf.
The BJP has four ministers on the list of 40 star campaigners and Union Home minister Amit Shah too held meetings with local leaders but didn’t participate directly in the election campaign. Chief minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis along with state ministers are also campaigning for Rasane.
The BJP has asked all its former women corporators to campaign for Rasane.
Sitting BJP legislator Madhuri Misal from the neighbouring Parvati constituency has been made the campaign in charge of Kasba and is actively canvassing for Rasane. Former legislator and vice-president of BJP women’s wing Medha Kulkarni organised a rally of the Brahmin community in Kasba on Monday. BJP State women’s wing chief Chitra Wagh is likely to campaign for Rasane in the next few days.
On Monday, BJP leader Pankaja Munde campaigned for the party candidate. “The voters of Kasba will continue with their trust in the BJP and elect Rasane,” she said.
The Congress, which is in alliance with the NCP and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, has also roped in women leaders from all alliance partners to campaign for Dhangekar. Congress legislator Praniti Shinde participated in a road show and addressed two rallies on Monday while former Congress minister Yashomati Thakur, Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan of the NCP, and state NCP chief Vidhya Chavan held a road show on Tuesday. Firebrand leader Sushma Andhare of the Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena held a separate rally in Lohiyanagar in the evening.
“Women Congress workers should reach out to every house in Kasba and tell the voters that the people are suffering due to high inflation and increased unemployment due to wrong policies of BJP,” Praniti Shinde said adding the people of the constituency have also suffered due to the failure of the BJP in carrying out development in Kasba.
State Congress chief Nana Patole along with local legislators of Congress and NCP also held another public rally in the evening.
