Dy CM Fadnavis says will introspect Kasba bypoll loss; Ashwini Jagtap becomes first woman MLA from Chinchwad

BJP’s Ashwini Jagtap Thursday won from the Pimpri-Chinchwad seat by a margin of over 36,000 votes by defeating Nationalist Congress Party candidate Nana Kate and is all set to become the first woman MLA to represent the industrial city in the Maharashtra Assembly.

In an initially closely fought contest, Jagtap, who was widely considered as a favourite, ultimately retained the seat for the party by defeating Kate. Interestingly, Independent candidate Rahul Kalate, who belongs to the Shiv Sena (UBT), played a major role in dividing MVA votes, resulting in Kate’s defeat.

Reeling from a downward spiral since the exit of Suresh Kalmadi from city politics, the Congress’s Pune unit has got something to cheer about as the victory of Ravindra Dhangekar, its Kasba bypoll candidate, on Thursday gave it an MLA after almost a decade.

In 2009, the Congress managed to get two MLAs elected from the city — Vinayak Nimhan from Shivajinagar and Ramesh Bagwe from Pune Cantonment — but could not retain the seats in 2014 as the BJP won all the eight seats in the city, with all parties contesting the election independently.