There was not much of a vote difference in the initial rounds of counting but Mohol started slowly gaining lead from across the city and overtook Dhangekar in all the Assembly segments. Both candidates didn’t turn up at the counting centre at the beginning and Mohol arrived only after he was certain of winning.

Supporters of Mohol celebrated the victory outside the counting centre as well as in Kothrud area but not many BJP leaders joined the celebrations citing not-so-good performance across the country. “The victory in Pune is good but we are upset with the results across the country as it was not as per our expectations,” said BJP spokesperson Sandeep Khardekar.

The BJP had won the Pune seat in the previous two Lok Sabha elections by over three lakh votes when Anil Shirole won in 2014 and Girish Bapat won in 2019. The saffron party failed to maintain the same lead this time. “I am thankful to the voters of Pune for electing me to the Lok Sabha and I promise to make them proud with my performance,” said Mohol after his win.

Another BJP leader said the reduced victory margin will be a cause of concern considering the Assembly elections and civic polls in the next few months. “The result is an alarm bell for us to improve our performance before going into the forthcoming elections,” he said, adding the party will definitely do the necessary analysis of the result and work on it for future elections.

The increased voting percentage in this election mainly in the Congress stronghold had raised concern for the BJP but the party managed to have its presence in the entire city including the Congress strongholds.

Dhangekar thanked all his supporters for giving a strong fight to the BJP in Pune. “I was expecting to win. However, the BJP won the seat with a margin less than the previous two elections which shows its declining strength in the city. Thus, the Congress will again take on the BJP in the Assembly and civic elections to give a much better performance,” he said.

Incidentally, there was no change in the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections in Pune district in comparison to 2019. The BJP retained Pune seat while its ally partner retained Maval seat while the NCP-led by Sharad Pawar retained the seat of Baramati and Shirur. Three of the sitting MPs — Supriya Sule of NCP (SP) from Baramati, Amol Kolhe of NCP (SP) from Shirur, Shrirang Barne of Shiv Sena from Maval were re-elected to the Lok Sabha. The only new face from Pune district in the Lok Sabha will be Mohol, the fresh face as sitting BJP MP Bapat passed away last year.