Pune: Contenders in Kasba Peth from Maha Yuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi

Pune: The Kasba Peth Assembly constituency is an important seat in the city. It attracted the nation’s attention during the bypoll held in 2023, which was necessitated after the death of the then MLA Mukta Tilak.

Congressman Ravindra Dhangekar won it by defeating his nearest rival BJP’s Hemant Rasne. The Model Code of Conduct is in force for the State Assembly elections. The filing of nomination has started. The last date of submitting nominations is October 29. The last date of withdrawal of nominations is November 4. Polling will take place on November 20 while counting of votes will happen on November 23.

Though the BJP has announced the first list of 99 candidates, it has not named its candidate from the Kasba Peth seat for the State poll. The ruling Maha Yuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will field their candidates.

Sitting MLA Dhangekar is most likely to be fielded by the MVA. But the Maha Yuti has not declared its candidate yet. The seat has been allotted to the BJP from the ruling combine. However, there is a tug of war between Hemant Rasne and party City Unit President Dheeraj Ghate over the candidature. There are some more aspirants in the Maha Yuti. This has posed a challenge for the BJP.

Number of voters

According to the figures in the last State poll in 2019, there are total 2,90,484 illegible voters in Kasba Peth. This could have changed.