Maharashtra by-election result: ruling MVA learns from its past mistakes
The Hindu
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.
A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.