Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: BJP’s Basavraj Patil won the Osmanabad-Latur-Beed Local Authorities’ Constituency election by a margin of 719 votes — highest among all 17 constituencies in Maharashtra.The landslide victory is attributed to huge cross-voting from the MVA camp, with Patil securing 199 additional votes than the calculated strength of BJP and its allies in the three districts concerned. Mahesh Deshmukh of Congress, who was fielded by the MVA, secured only 125 votes.Reacting to his victory, Patil said the election outcome was possible only because of the cooperation from alliance partners and hard work of the party workers. “I will follow the agenda of development of PM Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis,” he told TOI.He, however, refused to comment on the cross-voting taken place in his favour from the MVA camp.Osmanabad (Dharashiv) MP Omraje Nimbalkar, who left Shiv Sena (UBT) to join Sena led by deputy CM Eknath Shinde on Monday, is also credited for engineering the cross-voting during the MLC polls before leaving the Uddhav Thackeray camp. BJP leaders are claiming similar cross-voting from Latur and Beed as well.Patil, 71, is a two-time MLA in the past and also served as minister of state. The veteran politician was in Congress earlier and considered as the close confidant of late Union minister Shivraj Patil Chakurkar.He joined the BJP in Feb 2024 and was waiting for a suitable opportunity to give head start to his political career in his new political inning. Patil’s victory in the MLC poll is also expected to help the BJP in spreading its roots further in Latur, which is considered as Congress bastion.