BJP's Nitesh Rane wins from Maharashtra's Kankavali constituency

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Nitesh Rane, who contested from Mahrashtra's Kankavali region has won the elections with 58% vote share. The leader has a lead with over 43,000 votes from the region. Kankavali is an Assembly/Vidhan Sabha seat in Konkan region and Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra and is part of Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency.

In 2014 polls as a Congress candidate, he had defeated BJP MLA Pramod Jathar. In the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Nitesh Narayan Rane of INC won in this seat by defeating the BJP candidate by a margin of 25,979 votes which was 16.66% of the total votes polled in the constituency. INC had a vote share of 47.91% in 2014 in the seat. Nitesh Rane is the son of veteran Maharashtra politician and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane, who started his career with Shiv Sena. Recently, Narayan Rane and his sons Nitesh and Nilesh joined the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections.

NCP's seat share improves in Maharashtra 

Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was leading on 27 of the total 66 constituencies in western Maharashtra a region that is considered its traditional stronghold according to trends till 10.50 am. Western Maharashtra has long been touted to be the NCP’s stronghold. NCP president Sharad Pawar had aggressively campaigned throughout the State. Meanwhile,  BJP candidate Udayanraje Bhosale trailing behind NCP nominee Shriniwas Patil by 41,255 votes in Maharashtra's Satara Lok Sabha seat by-election.

Congress-NCP alliance

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Indian National Congress are in alliance in Maharashtra for the Assembly elections. Both NCP and Congress fought on 125 seats each. Maharashtra has 288 Assembly seats. Rest of the seats were fought by the smaller allies. In 2014, the two parties had contested the State elections separately. NCP chief Sharad Pawar had ended the 15-year alliance after the two parties had been unable to reach a seat-sharing arrangement for the 2014 elections.

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