'Outsider' Chandrakant Patil wins from Kothrud
Pune: Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil won from Kothrud Assembly constituency in Pune city by a margin of 25,495 votes on Thursday.
Patil, senior state minister who was battling the perception that he was an outsider -- as he hails from Kolhapur -- defeated Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) Kishore Shinde.
The Congress and NCP had supported the MNS candidate.
Patil, who is a member of the Legislative Council at present, polled1,05,246 votes, against Shinde's 79,751.
Of the total 1,95,157 votes cast, 4,028 went to NOTA.
After Patil's candidature was announced, posters had come up in Kothrud calling him an "outsider" and expressing resentment.
Medha Kulkarni, the sitting Kothrud MLA of the BJP, was denied ticket to accommodate Patil, who was contesting his first assembly election, as the seat was considered to be safe for the party.
Kulkarni had won the 2014 election by a margin of 64,662 votes.
