The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP effortlessly trounced the BJP to retain the Deglur-Biloli Assembly seat in Nanded district with the Congress’ Jitesh Antapurkar inflicting a crushing defeat on his BJP rival Subhash Sabne.
Mr. Antapurkar won by more than 40,000 votes turning what was thought to be a hotly contested bypoll into a one-sided win for the MVA and a prestigious win for the Congress.
He secured 1.08 lakh votes while Mr. Sabne could garner 67,000-odd votes in the bypoll that had witnessed an unusually high voter turnout of 63%, which was more than the turnout during the 2019 election itself.
The bypoll had been necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar due to COVID-19-related complications in April.
Sympathy wave
According to analysts, while Mr. Jitesh Antapurkar, son of the deceased MLA, was certainly riding high on the “sympathy wave”, the BJP’s overtly “aggressive campaigning” may have actually worked against it.
The contest was a prestige fight for senior Congressman and Maharashtra Minister Ashok Chavan, who left no stone unturned to retain his party’s supremacy over Deglur, a part of his stronghold Nanded.
The BJP matched Mr. Chavan and the MVA’s efforts, with Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis campaigning frenetically along with State BJP president Chandrakant Patil.
“However, the BJP took on Mr. Chavan by hinting raids by Central agencies against businesses linked to him…such overtly strong arm tactics, at a time when the perception is that of the Centre’s blatant misuse of agencies against non-BJP parties, may have put off voters and worked against it,” said a local election watcher.
Major setback
The BJP suffered a major setback on the eve of the bypoll with former Nanded MP Bhaskar Patil Khatgaonkar, Mr. Chavan’s brother-in-law, quitting it and re-joining the Congress fold.
The former three-time MP returned to the Congress which he had exited seven years ago along with former MLA Omprakash Pokarna.
Mr. Khatgaonkar had quit the Congress in 2014 after being disgruntled with Mr. Chavan following the latter’s decision to field his wife Ameeta Chavan from the Bhokar Assembly constituency in Nanded that year.
The defection is believed to have seriously undercut the BJP’s chances as the former is considered to be an influential leader in the constituency.
