While a section of party leaders from the city said they are in favour of a tie-up with Ajit Pawar’s NCP, others said those looking to contest in the PMC elections should be “given justice”. (File Photo)
Leaders of the Pune unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) Friday conveyed their opinion to the party’s state chief, Shashikant Shinde, on forging a pre-poll alliance with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections to pose a challenge to the BJP.
Shinde reviewed the party’s preparations for the Maharashtra civic polls and held discussions with the city unit to plan an election strategy.
“The party workers stood by the NCP(SP) during the tough time of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. They should be given justice in the civic polls by giving them candidature in the PMC elections. We are not against pre-poll alliance with the NCP, but it should not happen that only senior established leaders get an opportunity to contest as candidates, while others suffer due to it,” said a worker aspiring for the party candidature.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has been dominant in Pune since 2014, having won Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the city. The BJP also won a big mandate in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) polls in 2017, winning 98 seats and single-handedly coming to power in the city for the first time.
The NCP has been the BJP’s biggest rival in Pune, having held power for 10 years before the saffron party wrested it away.
Meanwhile, Pune NCP (SP) chief Prashant Jagtap has been opposing any plans of allying with Ajit Pawar-led NCP for the PMC elections.
“The survey of the party shows that the NCP will gain more than the NCP(SP) if there is a pre-poll alliance between the two parties. Instead, the NCP(SP) will perform well when contesting elections of PMC without forging an alliance with the NCP,” Jagtap has said.
The united NCP had won 39 of the 162 seats in the 2017 PMC elections, and was the main Opposition party with the BJP in power. Before that, the NCP emerged as the single-largest party in the 2007 and 2012 civic polls, ruling the Pune civic body.
After the split in the NCP with Ajit Pawar parting ways from his uncle Sharad Pawar, the city unit also split, with many senior leaders standing with the veteran politician, while many with high aspirations stood by Ajit.
In the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the NCP and NCP (SP) won one seat each in the city.
