Pune: The Bharatiya Janata Party coasted to victory in the municipal bypolls to the Pune and Kolhapur civic bodies on Thursday, with BJP or BJP-backed candidates winning in both elections.
BJP candidate Ratnesh Shirodkar won the by-election in the Tarabai Park ward of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation while Himali Kamble bagged the Koregaon Park-Ghorpadi seat of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as the BJP- Republican Party of India (RPI) alliance candidate.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Ms. Kamble’s father, former Pune deputy mayor Navnath Kamble in May.
Ms. Kamble won by a comfortable margin of more than 4,580 votes to beat the NCP's Dhananjay Gaikwad.
However, the PMC bypoll was marked by a notably lacklustre response from voters, with a mere 20.78% turnout.
The Tarabai Park seat of the KMC turned out to be a closely fought affair with the BJP's Shirodkar defeating his NCP rival Rajesh Latkar by a mere 200 votes.
The seat had fallen vacant after corporator Nilesh Desai was disqualified earlier this year for submitting a fake caste certificate.
Voting in the KMC ward was healthier with a 58% turnout.
