Kasba bypoll: Winds of change blowing across country, says Pawar on BJP's defeat

With the Bharatiya Janata Party losing its bastion of Kasba Peth in Pune city to the Congress in the recentlyheld Assembly bypoll Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said the development indicated that winds of change were blowing across the countryThe former Union minister was speaking to reporters at Baramati his hometown in Pune districtBJPs defeat in the Kasba Peth Assembly bypoll proves that people are considering an alternative Winds of change are blowing across the country he saidThe BJP on Thursday failed to retain the Kasba Peth Assembly seat its stronghold for nearly three decades as Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated the saffron party nominee Hemant Rasane in a keenly contested bypoll which had become a prestige battle between the ruling coalition and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi MVAThe BJP has represented Kasba Peth in the state Assembly for the last 28 years Girish Bapat the current BJP Lok Sabha MP from Pune won the prestigious seat five times till 2019 The bypoll was held on February 26 and votes were counted on ThursdayPawar said BJP has negligible presence in Kerala Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Telangana Punjab Delhi West Bengal and Karnataka which goes to polls this year At the time of casting their votes people will remember how BJP toppled the Congress governmentsHe termed the Supreme Courts verdict on the appointment of election commissioners ECs a good decision for democracyAlso read Sharad Pawar expresses reservations over privileges committeeIn a farreaching verdict the apex court on Thursday ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and ECs will be done by the President on the recommendation of a committee comprising the Prime Minister Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India CJI to maintain the purity of the electoral processPawar said the NCP has done well in Nagaland as it won seven of the12 seats it contested in the recently held polls to the 60member AssemblyWe are the number two party there Party general secretary Narendra Verma has been deputed to Nagaland as an observer he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever