A day after both NCPs joined hands for the elections to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), the BJP said Monday that their alliance won’t make a difference as it was all set to romp home with a landslide victory.
In the 2017 PCMC elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party won a brute majority of 78 seats, and held the reins of the civic body until 2022.
“Let them unite and contest the elections against us. It will not make a difference to us. We are banking on our slogan Abki Baar, 100 Paar,” BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Shatrughan Kate told The Indian Express.
“We are making our preparations. We are going to field strong candidates as we did in the last elections. Importantly, we have a strong base in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Our worry is the rebellion. But we are confident of quelling it..”
When asked about the possible alliance with the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, Kate said, “We are still in discussion. Seat-sharing has not been finalised so far”.
Kate also denied that there will be a friendly fight with the Nationalist Congress Party in Pimpri-Chinchwad as announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. “Elections are elections. We are pitted against each other. There will be a fight between the two parties,” he said.
On allegations made by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar about corruption in PCMC during the BJP rule, Kate said, “We are not making any allegations… We are going to fight the elections on the issue of development”.
Raju Durge, another prominent BJP leader in Pimpri-Chinchwad, said the party is selecting candidates on “elective merit” for the January 15 civic body polls.
“Every candidate we have selected is a winner. We are already pretty confident about 70 candidates. It means they are winners. Now, we are looking at how many we can add. We can go up to 100 or might even cross it..”
Durge said they never considered NCPs as two units. “The two NCPs have come together because they know they won’t survive on the election turf. They have no strength to fight. In fact, the situation of Sharad Pawar’s party is so bad that it might not get a single candidate elected,” he said.
The NCP (SP) currently has two former corporators in its fold. However, Durge said they are not writing off the NCP. “Last time, the NCP won 36 wards. This time too, they will be between 30 and 40. It will be an achievement in itself after the split. But we don’t believe they will pose a serious threat to us. We will return to power in Pimpri-Chinchwad,” Durge said.
Durge added that since Ajit Pawar commented on the corruption issue, the NCP will get a befitting reply. “They have ignited it; they will get a strong riposte from us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Yogesh Behl, president of the NCP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit, said both parties are discussing seat-sharing. “The NCP (SP) was initially demanding 29 seats. Now, they have come down to 20 seats. We are ready to offer them between 15-18 seats. The seat-sharing has not been finalised. It might happen today or by tomorrow morning,” Behl said.
Asked about the possibility of joining hands with the Shiv Sena, Behl said, “We have learnt that the talks between the Sena and the BJP have failed. The Sena has demanded 13 seats from us. We are ready to give six seats. They have not yet got back to us.”