Pune, Feb 6 (PTI) The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said if the Congress assures that the upcoming Assembly bypoll to Kasba Peth seat in Pune will be unopposed in the event of BJP nominating a member of late MLA Mukta Tilak's family then the saffron party will make its official candidate withdraw from the fray.

Eyebrows were raised over BJP giving a ticket to local leader Hemant Rasne, who filed his nomination earlier in the day, with the husband of Mukta Tilak saying his family members would have completed her work if given a ticket.

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Besides Rasne, Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar filed his nomination papers for the Kasba Peth bypoll and Ashwini Jagtap for the Chinchwad Assembly seat which represents the neighbouring Pimpri Chinchwad township.

The byelections to Kasba Peth and Chinchwad constituencies, scheduled for February 26, were necessitated due to the death of MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, respectively. Both of them belonged to the BJP.

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Ashwini Jagtap is the wife of the late Laxman Jagtap.

The last date for filing the nominations is February 7 while the last date for withdrawal is February 10. Votes will be counted on March 2.

"I heard Congress leaders saying that if BJP gives a ticket to the Tilak family, the Congress will consider the contest to be unopposed. If it is so, we are also ready. We don't have any problem. Rasne will withdraw his nomination," state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule told reporters here.

He claimed the Tilak family is not at all disappointed.

"The BJP is the party where nobody is dropped deliberately. All 'karyakartas' of the BJP are good but only one person can be nominated for the post. Last time, Muktatai Tilak contested the election and Rasne held back. Today, when Rasane is contesting, Kunal (son of Mukta Tilak) waited," said Bawankule.

He was reacting to state Congress president Nana Patole's remarks that the BJP has forgotten freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the family of Mukta Tilak by nominating Rasne.

The deceased Mukta Tilak was the daughter-in-law (niece-in-law) of Jayantrao Tilak, who was Bal Gangadhar Tilak's grandson.

Earlier in the day, Mukta Tilak's husband Shailesh had said,"if the BJP had given a ticket into the family, we would have got the opportunity to take my wife's work forward".

He, however, added that the party's decision is accepted by the Tilak family.

In the evening, Shailesh Tilak and his son Kunal were present during the media briefing by Bawankule.

The state BJP chief also said Patole should not impose this election on the people just for one year; Maharashtra will vote in 2024.

Bawankule expressed confidence that if the byelection is held, the BJP will retain the Kasba Peth constituency with a 51 per cent vote share.

Meanwhile, Congress candidate Dhangekar visited Mukta Tilak's residence and offered flowers to her photo.

"The by-poll was necessitated unfortunately after the sudden demise of Muktatai. The Tilak family got the people's mandate to represent the constituency till 2024 but that mandate has been taken away with a political motive. Had the ticket been given to the Tilak family, perhaps the situation would have been different," Dhangekar said in a social media post targeting BJP.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)