Pune, March 2: In a stunner, the Congress-Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate Ravindra Dhangekar bagged the Kasba Peth Assembly seat - ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from its stronghold of 27 years - here on Thursday.

He defeated his BJP rival Hemant Rasane - who conceded defeat in the polls - even as the official announcement is expected soon. Dhangekar's victory is considered a major political setback for the BJP in what has been its safe seat of nearly three decades. Kasba Peth Assembly By-Election Result 2023: Ravindra Dhangekar Wins, Congress Bags Seat After More Than 30 Years.

While Dhangekar secured 73,284 votes, Rasane got 62,244 votes as per the final tally. In Chinchwad, BJP nominee Ashwini L. Jagtap continued to lead with a considerable margin over the Nationalist Congress Party-MVA rival Vithal 'Nana' Kate, and Shiv Sena (UBT) rebel Rahul Kalate, contesting as independent.

At 1 p.m, Jagtap had secured 67,500 votes over Kate's 55,900 votes and Kalate's 22,300 votes, at the end of the 19th round of counting - the halfway mark of vote-count spread over 37 rounds - and the final results were likely by late afternoon. Kasba Peth, Chinchwad Assembly By-Election Result 2023 Live Streaming on ABP Majha: Watch Live News Updates on Counting of Votes.

The two hotly contested by-polls were necessitated on account of the death of the sitting BJP MLAs - Mukta J. Tilak (Kasba Peth) and Laxman P. Jagtap (Chinchwad), in December 2022-January 2023.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 02, 2023 05:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).