With a tough battle on the cards and less than ten days to go for the polls, the Congress nominee for Pune, Mohan Joshi, is trying to reach every voter in the city. His focus is on three assembly segments – Cantonment, Kasba peth and Shivajinagar – from where the party hopes to get a lead.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, expects a repeat of the 2014 outcome, when party candidate Anil Shirole got to lead from all the six segments.
Pune will go to polls on April 23 for the Lok Sabha elections.
Arithmetic shows that consolidated votes for the BJP and the Shiv Sena during the 2014 assembly polls in Shivajinagar were just 2,272 more than the total votes garnered by the Congress, the NCP and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
The BJP and the Shiv Sena got a lead of at least 10,410 votes in Kasba peth and 11,526 votes in Cantonment, over the consolidated votes received by the Congress, NCP and MNS in 2014.
This time, the BJP nominee Girish Bapat, is hoping to get a decent margin in the Kothrud, Parvati and Wadgaonsheri assembly segments. “While I have been elected from Kasba peth for five terms as a member of legislative assembly (MLA), I am confident to get a good lead from all the six assembly seats during the Lok Sabha elections,” said Bapat during a recent interaction.
Kothrud has been on the strongest footing for BJP, which along with Sena got 80,936 votes more than the NCP, Congress and MNS candidates put together. In the Parvati segment too, the BJP’s performance has been well as the party along with Sena got 1,22,076 votes as compared to 60,692 votes received by the Congress, NCP and MNS in 2014.
{{/usCountry}}Kothrud has been on the strongest footing for BJP, which along with Sena got 80,936 votes more than the NCP, Congress and MNS candidates put together. In the Parvati segment too, the BJP’s performance has been well as the party along with Sena got 1,22,076 votes as compared to 60,692 votes received by the Congress, NCP and MNS in 2014.
{{/usCountry}}The six assembly segments which are part of Pune Lok Sabha constituency are currently being represented by the BJP which fought the 2014 assembly elections alone, without the Shiv Sena. In 2014, the Congress, too, did not ally with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The MNS is not fighting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, though its leader Raj Thackeray, is holding rallies asking voters to support Rahul Gandhi.
“We are confident of getting a strong lead from Shivajinagar, Cantonment and Kasba peth. The party has a strong base here,” said Joshi, adding that support of MNS and Aam Admi Party (AAP) “will help me increase my lead.” Besides the MNS, AAP has extended its backing to Joshi in Pune.
In 2014, AAP candidate from Pune, Subhash Ware had received 28,000 votes while the MNS nominee Deepak Paigude got at least 90,000 votes.
Where the parties stood in 2014
Cantonment: BJP+SS ---71,200…..Cong+NCP+MNS--59,674
Kasba peth:---- BJP+SS ---83,595…..Cong+NCP+MNS--73,185
Shivajinagar:---- BJP+SS---71,122…..Cong+NCP+MNS--68,395
Kothrud: ----BJP+SS---1,37,220…..Cong+NCP+MNS--56,284
Parvati: ----BJP+SS---1,22,076…..Cong+NCP+MNS--60,692
Wadgaonsheri: ---BJP+SS---1,28,491…..Cong+NCP+MNS--75,806