In a major setback to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Samadhan Autade on Sunday won the by-election to Pandharpur-Mangalvedha Assembly seat in Solapur district by defeating Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Bhagirath Bhalke.
As per the district election officials, Autade defeated Bhalke by a margin of 3,733 votes. While Autade polled 1,09,450 votes, Bhalke bagged 1,05,717. A total of 2,27,421 votes, including postal ballots, were counted, they said.
Meanwhile, NCP state president Jayant Patil cited a lack of proper communication between the party cadres for Bhalke’s loss. “The election was held in two talukas – Pandharpur and Mangalvedha. And hence, our two teams weren’t able to properly communicate between themselves. This was the reason for the loss of NCP candidate Bhagirath Bhalke by a small margin of votes,” Patil said. He also thanked the other parties of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)–Shiv Sena and Congress–for their help during the polls.
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