With a day to go before the last date for filing nominations for the Kasba Peth bypoll in Maharashtra, the Congress on Monday declared Ravindra Dhangekar as its candidate. The election was necessitated due to the demise of sitting legislator Mukta Tilak in December. Dhangekar will be the candidate of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena, against BJP’s Hemant Rasane. “The Congress will be contesting the Kasba seat as per seat-sharing arrangement and the party has decided to field Ravindra Dhangekar as candidate,” state Congress chief Nana Patole said. Dhangekar rushed to meet the Tilak family on Monday morning to seek their support. “I have been asked by the party to be prepared to contest the bypoll of Kasba Assembly seat,” Dhangekar said after meeting members of the Tilak family. Dhangekar met Shailesh and Kunal Tilak, husband and son of Mukta Tilak, along with Congress leader Rohit Tilak. Dhangekar said he had cordial relations with the deceased legislator as both worked for the development of the area in the same constituency. Incidentally, the BJP refused a party ticket to members of the Tilak family despite both Shailesh and Kunal expressing a desire to contest the seat. Shailesh Tilak expressed disappointment but said he would continue to work for the BJP. Dhangekar is seen as a formidable candidate in the Kasba seat that has been a BJP bastion for long. He had lost the 2009 Assembly election in Kasba by a small margin against then elected BJP candidate Girish Bapat. Dhangekar was then with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Dhangekar is a five-time corporator and has represented Shiv Sena and MNS twice each in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). He shifted to Congress in 2017 and was elected as a Congress-supported Independent candidate. While in MNS, Dhangekar was a confidant of MNS chief Raj Thackeray and was even made the leader of the party in PMC.
