SPPU senate polls: Congress to not support MVA panel

Congress party students’ wing have extended support to ‘Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Parivartan’ instead of MVA panel for SPPU senate polls

Pune: A dispute is brewing between the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) panel and a third panel named ‘Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Parivartan’ formed by independent candidates, with the Congress party students’ wing now supporting the ‘Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Parivartan’ instead of the MVA panel for the management council senate polls of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). According to the leaders of the Congress party students’ wing, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena did not take them into consideration while forming the MVA panel for the SPPU senate polls.

SPPU main building in Pune. Congress party students’ wing have extended support to ‘Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Parivartan’ instead of MVA panel for SPPU senate polls. (HT FILE)

The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) of the Congress party has given an official letter of support to the third panel. “We have given the letter of support to the newly-formed third panel in the SPPU senate elections, and we are not going with the MVA panel this time. They did not contact us and finalised four candidates of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and six candidates of the NCP,” said Bhushan Ranbhare, Pune city president, NSUI.

While the Congress party city president Arvind Shinde said, “We had demanded that at least one candidate be included in the MVA panel which was refused by the NCP and Shiv Sena leaders. So, we supported the third panel, ‘Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Parivartan’. All our efforts and support will now be for this third panel in all three districts.”