NCP’s Pune stars rise in the east: Party wins in Hadapsar, Wadgaonsheri

In Hadapsar, NCP’s Chetan Tupe defeated sitting MLA Yogesh Tilekar by a thin margin of 2,820 votes; while in Wadgaonsheri, BJP’s Jagdish Mulik lost to NCP’s Sunil Tingre by 4,975 votes

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has made inroads into the BJP’s stronghold in Pune.

For NCP, the big respite came from east Pune as the party bagged two constituencies- Wadgaonsheri and Hadapsar, - after its candidates won close fights with the BJP nominees.

In Hadapsar, NCP’s Chetan Tupe defeated sitting MLA Yogesh Tilekar by a thin margin of 2,820 votes; while in Wadgaonsheri, BJP’s Jagdish Mulik lost to NCP’s Sunil Tingre by 4,975 votes.

Tingre received 97,700 votes, while Mulik secured 92,725 votes.

Mulik was seeking re-election in Wadgaonsheri and helped the party engineer few defections, as old NCP leaders from the locality such as Bapu Pathare joined the BJP ahead of polls. The defections however did not help BJP or Mulik as he lost to Tingre. The second runner up in this constituency is Pravin Bapurao Gaikwad of Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) who secured 10,298 votes.

In Hadapsar assembly constituency, Tupe secured 92,326 votes while Tilekar received 89,506 votes. The second runner up here was Vasant More of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). More bagged 34,809 votes.

Newly-elected MLA Chetan Tupe said, “I credit today’s win to all those who voted for me and the party. I am thankful to them. My father’s dream has come true today, he (MP Vitthal Tupe) always wanted to see me become an MLA. I will start working on the civic issues faced by residents of Hadapsar and will also resolve the water sully issue. We also need to find a solution regarding waste management, as the entire city’s garbage is dumped here. I will not let that happen anymore.”