Amid fierce attacks from the BJP, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi put up a united front with the Congress defeating the saffron party in Kolhapur North bye-elections in Maharashtra.
Buoyed by the success, the Congress has declared to take ahead at national level what it described as the “Kolhapur-pattern”, which would involve micro-planning, hard ground work and moving with a strategy.
Congress candidate Jayshree Jadhav defeated Satyajit Kadam by a margin of over 18,000 votes in the bye-elections that witnessed an intense fortnight-long campaign involving war-of-words between the two sides.
Winning the seat has come as a boost to the MVA, the Uddhav Thackeray-led and the Sharad Pawar-crafted anti BJP-coalition.
The three ruling parties - Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, which had contested the previous elections against each other, worked in unison to ensure the win.
For MVA, this win is important as the three parties have been contemplating contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls together to take on the BJP. Besides, it is also a morale booster as 2022-23 will also see local bodies’ elections.
The bye-elections in this important Western Maharashtra seat has been necessitated because of the death of Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav, who passed away on 2 December, 2021, because of Covid-19 related complications.
The Congress had fielded Jayshree Jadhav, the wife of Chandrakant Jadhav against Kadam, who is the nephew of former legislator and veteran politician Mahadeorao Mahadik.
It may be recalled, during the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, Chandrakant Jadhav had defeated two-time Shiv Sena legislator Rajesh Kshirsagar, who is currently the executive chairman of Maharashtra State Planning Board.
State BJP president Chandrakant Patil, who hails from Kolhapur, had been camping in Kolhapur for over two weeks while the Congress charge was undertaken by minister of state for home and information technology Satej Patil, who is also the guardian minister of the district.
“We will surely analyse what went wrong,” said Chandrakant Patil, however, pointing out that it was three parties taking on one.
“The Kolhapur formula needs to be taken across the country. Polarisation by BJP did not work here, money did not work here. We did micro planning and had a carefully drafted strategy,” said Satej Patil.
“Kolhapur is a Shahu Nagari. It belongs to Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj where there is no place for casteism,” added Jayshree Jadhav as the results came in.
“The BJP tried out every trick possible but could not win,” said Congress legislature party leader and state revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat. “The BJP used the policy of 'saam, daam, dand, bhed’ but could not succeed,” added state Congress president Nana Patole.
The MVA alliance partners, however, mocked the state BJP president, who had stated that he would quit and go to Himalayas, if the party loses Kolhapur North.
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