Maharashtra: Backed by 2 ruling parties, Congress wins Deglur bypoll

The Congress defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate by 41,933 votes to retain the Deglur constituency bypolls in Nanded district, results of which were announced on Tuesday.

The Congress defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate by 41,933 votes to retain the Deglur constituency bypolls in Nanded district, results of which were announced on Tuesday. The victory is considered important for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising three ruling parties – Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress – ahead of the local body elections and in the backdrop of the BJP’s vow of repeating the Pandhurpur bypoll episode when it had wrested the seat from the NCP in May this year.

The victory is considered important for the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising three ruling parties – Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress – ahead of the local body elections and in the backdrop of the BJP’s vow of repeating the Pandhurpur bypoll episode when it had wrested the seat from the NCP in May this year.

Congress’s Jitesh Antarpurkar, who polled 108,840 votes, won the bypoll by defeating BJP’s Subhash Sabne who polled 66,907 votes, while Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Uttam Ingole got 11,348 votes. The victory will help the Congress to retain its number of 44 in the state Assembly. The bypoll was necessitated due to the demise of Congress’s sitting MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar in April this year. Congress picked Jitesh, son of Raosaheb Antapurkar, to get the benefit of sympathy due to the demise of the sitting MLA. BJP candidate Subhash Sabne, a three-term MLA, had defected from the Shiv Sena days before filing the nomination.

The bypoll was a prestige fight for the ruling parties as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Key leaders, including Union and state ministers from both the sides, participated in the campaign for the bypoll held on October 30. Antapurkar maintained the lead for all 31 rounds since morning. His father had won the poll by 22,433 votes in October 2019. The constituency is reserved for a Scheduled Caste (SC) candidate.

The BJP had said that it will repeat the results of Pandharpur bypoll held in May this year. The BJP had snatched the seat from the NCP as former’s Samadhan Autade bagged the seat by a narrow margin of less than 4,000 votes. It was considered a setback for the MVA government as the three parties had fought the poll together against the opposition BJP. The result of the bypoll in Deglur is also considered important ahead of the local body elections slated for early next year, as it indicates the mood of the people. More than 75% of the local bodies, including corporations and district councils, will go to polls.

“It is a victory of the combined efforts put in by the three ruling parties. There have been constant efforts to destabilise and pull down the MVA government in the state by the BJP, but voters have voted against such attempts,” said Ashok Chavan, public works department minister and guardian minister of Nanded.

According to the Congress leaders, the united efforts by three ruling parties helped them win the bypoll. “Although NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Sena chief and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray did not participate in the bypoll, they were in constant touch with Chavan. Thackeray held a video conference with ena leaders from Nanded. The leaders from three ruling parties knew that it will be a major embarrassment for them if they lost. Subhash Sabne’s defection to the BJP was a clever move by BJP leaders, but it got scuttled because of the defection of Bhaskar Khatgaonkar to Congress just days ahead of voting. Similarly, Ashok Chavan had ensured that a sizable government fund was spent in the constituency in the past six months,” said a Congress leader.

Senior party leader and former union cabinet minister Ajay Maken, who was in Mumbai, on Tuesday said, “The results of bypolls across the country are a clear indication that the countdown of BJP has begun. People are not happy with the autocratic way of functioning of the BJP leadership at the Centre,” he said.