Boost for Pankaja as BJP leader wins Beed MLC election

MUMBAI: BJP candidate Suresh Dhas on Tuesday won the local self-governing bodies’ for the Osmanabad-Beed-Latur constituency, defeating NCP-backed nominee Ashok Jagdale by a margin of 74 votes.
The outcome of the election, which remained interesting right from the filing of nomination papers till the declaration of the results following legal hurdles, came as a morale-booster for state minister Pankaja Munde in her political battle with her cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde.
Despite having a comfortable share of votes in its favour, the NCP faced defeat due to crossvoting. Dhas secured 527 votes as against Jagdale’s 451, with 25 votes declared invalid on technical grounds. One vote was already termed invalid on the grounds of breach of secrecy, said Osmanabad deputy collector Nilesh Shringi.
Some NCP leaders are said to have conspired to get Jagdale defeated as they wanted to put the brakes on Dhananjay Munde’s rising graph. Dhas, a former cabinet minister from the Congress-NCP regime, was at least a 100 votes short of victory going into the elections. He had left the NCP only a few months ago.
Speaking to media persons in Osmanabad after his victory, Dhas said his victory was a triumph of “public power” over “money power”.
In the evening, Dhas met Beed municipal council chairman and NCP leader Bharatbhushan Kshirsagar. Kshirsagar and his older brother Jaydutta are said to unhappy with the NCP top brass.