Pune: Pune Cantonment, Shivajinagar and Kasba Peth seats, where the BJP and the Congress faced straight fights, recorded a significant rise in voting on Wednesday compared to the 2019 assembly polls among the 11 constituencies in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. Pune Cantonment's voting jumped by 9.5% from 43.
4% five years ago to 52.9% in 2024. In Kasba Peth, it increased to 59.
3% from 2019's 51.6%, a rise of 7.64% and in Shivajinagar, the voting went up by 7.
9% from 2019's 43.9% to 51.7%.
Sources from both parties said that the increased voting will favour their candidates. Pune Cantonment and Shivajinagar seats are with the BJP, while Kasba Peth is with the Congress. In the 2019 state poll, voting turnout in Pune Cantonment and Shivajinagar was below the halfway mark.
Pune Cantonment was among the seats with the lowest turnout in the state. However, a noticeable increase in Wednesday's polling helped the constituency shed this tag. Congress leader Mohan Joshi said that the rise in voting in all three constituencies will go in favour of their candidates.
"The party came out with separate plans for every seat where it was going against the BJP. Increased voting in the seats where Congress is fighting is a hint that more votes have been polled in favour of our candidates," he said. Congress's senior leader Ramesh Bagwe is contesting against the BJP's sitting MLA Sunil Kamble in Pune Cantonment.
Kamble defeated Bagwe by a narrow margin of 5,000 votes in 2019. The party's leaders said.
