After getting LS poll ticket, Pune Cong MLA Dhangekar eyes repeat of assembly bypoll win

Congress MLA Ravindra Dhangekar on Thursday thanked the party leadership for showing faith in him and fielding him from the Pune Lok Sabha seat, and asserted he will look to replicate his victory in the last year's bypoll from the Kasba Peth assembly segment here.

Dhangekar's name figures in the list of seven candidates declared by the Congress in New Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra.

The Congress leader turned out to be a ''giant killer'' when he defeated BJP candidate Hemant Rasne in a fiercely contested assembly bypoll from the Kasab seat in Pune in March last year.

Dhangekar expressed happiness over the nomination for the Lok Sabha polls and said he was grateful to the party leadership for showing faith in him.

''I had already started my election campaign as I was confident of getting a ticket for the Pune Lok Sabha seat. I am sure there will be a repeat of the Kasba bypoll (result in Lok Sabha elections),'' he maintained.

The BJP has fielded Murlidhar Mohol, a three-time corporator and former Pune mayor, from the Lok Sabha seat in the city.