BJP's Hemant Rasane, who won in Kasba Peth, celebrating.
Credit: X/@HemantNRasane
Mumbai: As the Maha Yuti-NDA swept Pune city winning 18 of the 21 seats, the BJP wrested the prestigious and symbolic seat of Kasba Peth - the oldest locality of the cultural capital of Maharashtra.
Kasba Peth was the first Peth (locality) to be established sometime during the 5th century and is the oldest area in Pune.
There are 21 seats in Pune city of which 18 went into the kitty of Maha Yuti, two were won by Maha Vikas Aghadi and in one an Independent was victorious.
From the ruling side, BJP won nine seats, followed by eight by Ajit Pawar-led Shiv Sena and one by Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
For MVA, the Uddhav Thackeray-headed Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) have one seat.
The Kasba Peth locality includes the historic Lal Mahal, where legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj stayed with his mother Jijabai and grew up till he captured the Torna Fort.
The Lal Mahal is also famous for an encounter between Shivaji and Shaista Khan here Shivaji cut off four fingers of the latter when he was trying to escape from the first-floor window of the Lal Mahal.
The historic Shaniwar Wada, which once served as the capital of the Peshwas, too is located here.
Kasba Peth is called the "Heart of Pune City".
In the history of Pune, the city was once known as "Kasbe Pune”.
The Kasba Ganapati Temple and the Dagdusheth Halwai Temple are located here.
From the Kasba Peth seat, BJP’s Hemant Rasane won the seat defeating sitting Congress MLA Ravindra Dhangekar.
In the 2023 by-election, Dhangekar had defeated Rasane.
The by-polls were necessitated because of the death of Mukta Tilak, the great-granddaughter-in-law of nationalist and freedom fighter late Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Before that BJP’s late Girish Bapat represented the seat a record five times before becoming the Pune MP.
Determined to win the Kasba Peth, the RSS workers have worked extensively.
From Vadgaon Sheri, NCP (SP)’s Bapusaheb Pathare defeated NCP’s Sunil Tingre.
It may be recalled, that Tingre’s name cropped up in the wake of the Pune Porsche road rage incident when he visited the Yerwada police station during investigations.
Prominent candidates from Pune were BJP’s Chandrakant Patil, a minister and considered very close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who won the Kothrud seat while former Speaker and current minister Dilip Walse-Patil won the Ambegaon seat for NCP.
Besides Dhangekar, sitting Congress MLAs Sangram Thopte from Bhor, and Sanjay Jagtap from Purandar, too lost as Congress failed to score.
Former Congress MLA and ex-minister Ramesh Bagwe lost the Pune Cantonment seat.
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Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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