Kasba also faces dip in voter turnout

However, voting picked up later on and by 6 pm, the turnout was 50.06 per cent. Of the total 2,75,679 voters, only 1,38,018 voters exercised their right to vote in Kasba. Only 74,218 of the total 1,36,984 male voters in the constituency, and 63,800 of the 1,38,690 women voters – 54.18 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively – voted in Kasba on Sunday. The voting percentage has dipped significantly since the 2019 Assembly polls, which saw 51.62 per cent voting, and the 2014 Assembly polls with 61.57 per cent voting.  The Kasba by-poll was necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MLA Mukta Tilak. It has turned into a prestige battle between the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance and opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the state.

The BJP has fielded Hemant Rasane while the MVA candidate is Congress leader Ravindra Dhangekar.  The ruling and opposition alliances had pulled out all stops during the campaign in the run-up to the by-polls, with several senior leaders participating in the campaign. Recently, the MVA alleged the BJP-Sena group was distributing money among voters the day before polling. The BJP, in turn, accused the MVA of violating the election code of conduct as Dhangekar had held a protest after the campaign deadline.