Maha by-election: Early trends show Cong candidate ahead in Kasba, BJP leading in Chinchwad

Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar was ahead of his rivals in Kasba Assembly seat while Bharatiya Janata Party's Ashwini Jagtap was leading in Chinchwad seat, as per the early trends of counting underway on Thursday for bypolls to the two seats in Maharashtra's Pune district.

In the Kasba seat, Dhangekar got 5,844 votes in the first round of counting and took a lead over BJP candidate Hemant Rasane, who has so far received 2,863 votes, according to election officials. In the Chinchwad bypoll, BJP's Jagtap bagged 4,053 votes while Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Nana Kate got 3,604 votes in the first round, they said.

The bypolls, necessitated due to the death of incumbent BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak (Kasba) and Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad), were held on February 26, registering an average voter turnout of 50 per cent. These polls pitted the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

In the Kasba constiutency, located in the old area of Pune city, the MVA is backing Congress candidate Dhangekar. In Chinchwad, an industrial town near Pune, the main contenders are Ashwini Jagtap of the BJP, Nana Kate of the NCP and independent Rahul Kalate.