Maharashtra by-election result: ruling MVA learns from its past mistakes

An energetic campaign by Congressman and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, lack of a strong candidate proved to be BJP’s undoing

The defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate at the hands of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to retain the Deglur-Biloli Assembly seat in Nanded district is indicative of a well-coordinated strategy on the MVA’s part in its struggle with the BJP in Maharashtra.

The bypoll, that had been necessitated following the death of sitting Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar due to COVID-19-related complications in April this year, had witnessed an unusually high voter turnout of 63% — more than the voter turnout in Deglur-Biloli during the 2019 State Assembly election itself.

The BJP’s high-decibel campaign came a cropper as Congress’ Jitesh Antapurkar (the deceased MLA’s son) effortlessly trounced his BJP rival Subhash Sabne by a huge margin of more than 41,000 votes, turning a potential close contest into a one-sided win for the MVA, and a prestige win for his party, the Congress.