A man accused of involvement in the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in 2017 and currently out on bail won a seat in the Jalna City Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra as an Independent on Friday.

Shrikant Pangarkar was arrested in 2018 and accused of providing logistics to Lankesh’s assassins. He was also booked under the Explosives Act, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Karnataka High Court granted him bail in 2024.

Pangarkar contested as an Independent from Ward 13 and defeated his nearest rival, Raosaheb Dhoble of the BJP. All major parties fielded candidates against Pangarkar except the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Pangarkar secured 2,661 votes, while Dhoble polled 2,477 votes, a poll official said.

Lankesh’s murder was part of a series of assassinations of rationalists, secular activists and intellectuals in the country between 2013 and 2017. They include the murder of anti-superstition campaigner and physician Narendra Dabholkar in Pune in 2013, CPI leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur and Kannada literateur M.M. Kalburgi in Dharwad in 2015. The Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha was probed by investigators for these killings.

Dabholkar’s son Hamid — a Satara-based psychiatrist who also carries on his father’s legacy of activism — said Pangarkar’s win was “a grave indicator of the sorry state of electoral politics”.

“Sadly, moral values and electoral merit in this country have become as good as an inverse relationship. Despite all odds, we are determined to take our fight for justice in the cases of Gauri Lankesh, Dr Dabholkar, Comrade Pansare and Prof. Kalburgi to their logical conclusion,” he told The Telegraph.

Pangarkar had previously represented the Shiv Sena in the municipal body. He joined the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti after being denied a ticket by the undivided Sena in 2011. After securing bail, he rejoined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, but his membership was kept in abeyance following a public outcry.

Many expressed shock on social media over Pangarkar’s victory.

Rationalist social media influencer Ashok Dadhwal posted on X: “An accused in Gauri Lankesh’s murder wins an election and celebrates openly. This isn’t a glitch in democracy, it’s the mirror. When hate becomes virtue and violence becomes eligibility, this is the society we choose to be.”