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Local Congress, NCP leaders opposed to MVA’s 3-member ward decision
PUNE The Congress party is opposed to the three-member ward structure announced for the Pune Municipal Corporation ahead of the elections next year
PUNE The Congress party is opposed to the three-member ward structure announced for the Pune Municipal Corporation ahead of the elections next year. Local members of the NCP are also unhappy with the state cabinet decision announced on Wednesday.
The Congress and NCP prefer single -member wards, like Mumbai, or two-member wards.
Elected Congress members in the PMC Arvind Shinde, Lata Rajguru, Ajit Darekar, Vaishali Marate and Rafiq Shaikh have written a letter to the state unit president Nana Patole asking that the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) decision on three-member wards be revised.
Congress leader Abhay Chajjed said, “We as a party are not happy with three-member wards. It would not be helpful for either the Congress or the NCP.”
Arvind Shinde said, “For local self-government, it is always useful to have single-member wards as it helps citizens to contact the concern elected member directly. Whenever there are single or two-member wards, the Congress always gets more seats.”
NCP members, speaking off the record, said that three-member wards help the BJP. A senior NCP leader speaking anonymously said, “As my party welcomed the decision officially, I cannot oppose it openly, but we place our views before Ajit Pawar. The BJP is a master at campaigning. Despite having no development works, they will ask for votes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name for the municipal elections.”
NCP members said that there are many sitting corporators not happy with three-member ward decision. “Like the Congress party we too appeal to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to revise this decision if the MVA wants to benefit in the municipal corporation elections,” the NCP leader said.
