Shrikant Patil appointed NCP (SP) Pune city unit president

NCP appoints Shrikant Patil as Pune city president and Vishal Tambe as election in-charge after Prashant Jagtap's resignation amid civic poll campaign struggles.

In a bid to put its civic poll campaign back on track, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) has appointed Shrikant Patil as Pune city unit president and Vishal Tambe as the party’s election in-charge, following the resignation of former city chief Prashant Jagtap.

Shrikant Patil (HT PHOTO)

“I will try to do justice to the responsibility entrusted to me. During the municipal elections, we will work to win the maximum possible seats,” Patil said.

The appointments were made by NCP (SP) state president Shashikant Shinde amid concerns that the party’s city unit had become largely dysfunctional during the ongoing municipal election process.

After his appointment, Patil visited the party’s city office on Monday and formally took charge in the presence of former MP Vandana Chavan. A former corporator from the Bopodi area, Patil comes from a political family; his father had earlier served as Pune mayor.

Tambe, who has been appointed election in-charge, is a former standing committee chairman and a three-time corporator. He has decided not to contest the current municipal elections and will instead focus on coordinating the party’s campaign.

In the interim, senior party leaders Vandana Chavan, Vishal Tambe, and Ankush Kakade handled seat-sharing negotiations with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction and other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners.

Former city unit chief Prashant Jagtap resigned after opposing the party’s alliance with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction. He had argued that the NCP (SP) should continue with the Maha Vikas Aghadi arrangement and not align with Ajit Pawar for the civic polls.