Jitesh Antapurkar of the Congress defeated BJP’s Subhash Sabne by more than 40,000 votes
@the_news_21
Pune: The ruling Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Tuesday easily trounced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to retain the Deglur-Biloli Assembly seat in Nanded district. Congress candidate Jitesh Antapurkar inflicted a crushing defeat on his BJP rival Subhash Sabne by a margin of 41,933 votes.
Jitesh Antapurkar polled 1,08,840 votes, while his nearest BJP rival Subhash Sabne polled 66,907 votes. The by-poll witnessed an unusually high voter turn-out of 63%, which was more than the voter turnout in Deglur-Biloli during the 2019 State Assembly election itself. Antapurkar won by more than 41,933 votes turning the hotly -contested by-poll into a one-sided win for the MVA and a prestige win for the Congress.
The by-poll had been necessitated following the death of the sitting Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar due to Covid-19-related complications in April earlier this year. The Congress had fielded his son Jitesh Antapurkar. According to political analysts, Jitesh Antapurkar was riding high on a sympathy wave. The BJP’s overtly aggressive campaigning appears to have backfired on the latter.
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 the Deglur. The constituency is a part of his Nanded district stronghold.
The BJP matched Chavan and MVA’s efforts, with Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis campaigning frenetically along with State BJP President Chandrakant Patil.
According to local election observer, “However, the BJP took on Chavan by hinting raids by central agencies against businesses linked to him…such overtly strongarm 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 the BJP.”
Besides the sympathy for Jitesh Antapurkar, the BJP had suffered a major setback on the eve of the by-poll itself, with former Nanded MP and Ashok Chavan’s brother-in-law Bhaskarrao Patil-Khatgaonkar quitting the BJP and re-joining the Congress fold.
Khatgaonkar, a former three-time MP, returned back to the Congress which he had exited seven years ago along with former MLA Omprakash Pokarna.
Khatgaonkar had quit the Congress on the eve of the 2014 assembly elections after opposing Ashok Chavan’s decision to field his wife Ameeta Chavan from the Bhokar Assembly constituency in Nanded district. Khatgaonkar’s defection is believed to have seriously dented BJP’s chances as the former MP is considered to be an influential leader in the constituency.
