JOIN USMVA to take on BJP in the upcoming Pune bypolls
Amid serious differences among the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the opposition coalition is set to put up a united fight and take on the BJP in the bye-elections to two Assembly seats of Pune.
For both the MVA and the ruling BJP-BSS, it is a sort of litmus test - particularly after the elections to five seats of Council in which the opposition walked away with five seats - Nagpur, Amravati and Aurangabad while BJP could secure lone seat of Konkan and another was won by Independent Satyajeet Tambe who bagged the Nashik seat.
While 29 candidates have filed their nomination papers from Kasba Peth seat, 40 candidates have filed their nomination papers from Chinchwad.
While Kasba Peth is the oldest residential locality of the heart of Pune - the cultural capital of Maharashtra, the Pimpri-Chinchwad is the hustling-bustling sister city.
While in Kasba Peth, the main contest is between BJP and Congress, in Chinchwad the fight is between BJP and NCP.
The last date of withdrawal of nomination is Friday and efforts are still underway by the BJP to make the election unopposed but the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena opposition alliance is in no mood to give up.
The bye-elections have been necessitated following the death of BJP MLAs - Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap, who represented the Kasba Peth and Chinchwad, respectively.
Late Jagtap’s wife Ashwini Jagtap, the BJP candidate, filed nominations from Chinchwad, while his brother Shankar Jagtap is the dummy candidate. The NCP has fielded Nana Kate while NCP rebel Rahul Kalate too joined the race.
In Kasba Peth, the BJP denied nominations to the Tilak family and instead fielded Hemant Rasane who would take on Congress’ candidate Ravindra Dhangekar. Hindu Mahasabha’s Anand Dave, Sambhaji Brigade’s Avinash Mohite and Congress rebel Balasaheb Dabhekar too have filed papers.
Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, state Congress President Nana Patole and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut asserted that the MVA would put up a fight.
The BJP has appealed to the opposition MVA to let the polls unopposed as it withdrew its candidate from Andheri East against Shiv Sena (UBT) nominee Rutuja Latke, who won the polls.
“The BJP uses the people for its purpose. When the need ends, BJP forgets those people. Even today, BJP has forgotten Lokmanya Tilak, Mukta Tilak and the Tilak family. People are tired of the BJP. In the recently held Vidhan Parishad elections, the educated electorate clearly rejected the BJP, and they suffered a crushing defeat. BJP misused power in a big way, they will have to face the consequences. People will show them their place,” Patole said.
“The question of letting the BJP win both the seats without a contest does not arise. The BJP had in the past gone ahead and contested the by-polls (against our candidates. That being the case, the Chief Minister should not expect us to go the by-polls uncontested,” said Pawar.
“Andheri East was a different case…the same generosity was not shown in Nanded and Pandharpur bye-elections,” said Raut.