Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar defeated Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Hemant Rasane to win the Kasba Peth Assembly seat, which had been with the BJP since 1995. (File)Pune News Highlights, March 3, 2023: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said his party will introspect why it lost the Assembly bypoll to the Kasba Peth seat in Pune district and maintained the victorious Congress candidate won on the strength of his own political calibre. Fadnavis’s comment comes after BJP and Shiv Sena’s major defeat to Congress’s Ravindra Dhangekar by over 10,000 votes in its bastion of Kasba Assembly constituency.
In other news, to avoid disruptions in the railway schedule as the Pune Railway Station undertakes yard remodelling work, trains will be rerouted from Hadapsar from March 6, as reported by Loksatta. Pune-Solapur train will depart from Hadapsar terminal while Daund-Pune train will travel till Hadapsar terminal.
In a shocking case of crime in the city, a 30-year-old software engineer was allegedly raped under the false promise of marriage, and was also duped of Rs 19 lakh by a man she met on a matrimonial website.Based on her complaint, the police have booked a 33-year-old man who hails from Jalna district of Maharashtra, and runs a business in Pune.
Express Photos by Arul Horizon
Two engineering graduates, two Aadhaar enrolment centre employees and a private firm worker ganged together through a Telegram group and duped a Pune-based fintech startup after procuring credit cards using names and PAN details of celebrities like M S Dhoni, Abhishek Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit, the Delhi Police said on Friday. (PTI)
Newly-elected Congress MLA from Kasba Peth Ravindra Dhangekar on Friday met ailing Pune Lok Sabha MP Girish Bapat of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Dhangekar wrested the BJP stronghold by defeating Hemant Rasane by 10,950 votes in the February 26 bypolls, results of which were declared on Thursday. (PTI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Friday lashed out at Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar in the Assembly for the latter’s statement that the “common man defeated Eknath Shinde” after the Congress’s victory in the bypoll to Kasba constituency in Pune on Thursday. Shinde was delivering the government’s resolution on Governor Ramesh Bais’s joint address to the state legislature. Read more
Lieutenant General Narendra Kotwal assumed the appointment of Director and Commandant of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune on Friday, March 3.
Having completed his MBBS from Government Medical College in Jammu in 1985, he went on to do his MD in medicine from the AFMC in 1992. He is a Diplomate of the National Board (DNB) in medicine and a Member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (MNAMS) since 1997. Read more
Paediatric cancers have a very good chance of cure and an early referral can make a significant difference for the child, said Dr Neelesh Reddy, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Manipal Hospital, Yeshwanthpur, Bengaluru.
“We have always focused on the early detection and treatment of cancers as treatment is much simpler and is more cost-effective than the treatment of cancer in an advanced stage. So, an early referral to a specialist oncologist will make differences in various aspects like duration of treatment, intensity of treatment, side effects of treatment, cost of treatment and others,” Dr Reddy said. Read more
The loss of the Kasba Assembly seat, a party bastion, will put pressure on five of the eight BJP legislators in Pune city to retain their seats in the 2024 Assembly elections.
In 2019, the BJP had won six of the eight Assembly seats, which included Shivajinagar, Kasba Peth, Pune Cantonment, Parvati, Kothrud and Khadakwasla, while losing Vadgaosheri and Hadapsar Assembly seats to NCP. It had won all eight seats in 2014. Read more
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde mocked the Maha Vikas Aghadi over its excitement following the victory of an MVA-backed candidate in Kasba Peth bye-election, saying the BJP has historically swept state and general elections after a few setbacks in bypolls.
Speaking in the legislative assembly during the debate on the governor's address to the joint sitting of both Houses, Shinde said, “Now in the next elections, I am also with the BJP. We are the Shiv Sena that contested the last election in alliance with the BJP while you all had contested the election separately.” (PTI)
Two wards of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), namely Ward No.15 and Ward No.29, have been traditional strongholds of the BJP. Leads gained by BJP candidates in these two wards have been instrumental in helping the party retain its hold over the Kasba Assembly seat in the last 28 years.
When the results came out on Thursday, it became clear that these two wards had bucked the trend this time around, and thus sealed Rasane’s fate.
In reality, the lead that Rasane got from Ward No.15 was a mere 7,256 votes, which was not enough to tide over the advantage that his rival and eventual winner, Congress’s Ravindra Dhangekar, enjoyed in the other areas. The story was no different in Ward No.29 comprising Navi Peth and part of Dutta Wadi area, another BJP stronghold due to the popularity of its corporator Dheeraj Ghate.
The Pune city police have arrested two farmers in Maharashtra for allegedly growing the banned opium poppies in their farms in the Holkarwadi area, officials said Thursday.
The officers seized 1,374 opium plants weighing 116 kilograms, estimated at Rs 11.6 lakh, the police said in a statement. Read more
In a unique presentation, Shruti Madhudeep is to enact a play called Pach Futacha Bachchan, meaning ‘five-foot Bachchan’ at Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagriha, Kothrud.
What makes the play unique is that it will be a solo performance by the 25-year-old actor who is also the director of the drama. The city can watch the play, presented by Rom Rom Rangmanch and Orpheus Studios, on March 5 at 1 pm. Read more