If the Modi wave worked in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Anil Shirole was the beneficiary. Shirole won the Pune Lok Sabha constituency by a whopping margin of 3.15 lakh votes, wresting a constituency that was traditionally a Congress stronghold.
Six months later, during the assembly polls in 2014, when BJP ran the slogan of ‘shat-pratishat Bhajapa’ (cent –per cent BJP), little did the party realise that it is going to have 100 per cent representation in Pune, as it bagged all six assembly seats falling under the Lok Sabha constituency.
With Metro rail work, various initiatives under the Smart City programme and approval for Purandar airport, BJP hopes that the party will be able to retain the Pune Lok Sabha constituency, considered to be crucial for the organisation as Pune is the second-most important city in Maharashtra after Mumbai, in terms of generating employment.
From Vitthalrao Gadgil to Suresh Kalamadi, Pune was once the bastion for the Congress party. The expulsion of Kalmadi, a three-time MP from Pune, and the NCP making inroads into suburban areas, has left the Congress relatively weaker.
This time, Congress leaders hope they will put up a strong fight in Pune, an urban constituency with a mix of Marathi and a cosmopolitan populace.
{{/usCountry}}This time, Congress leaders hope they will put up a strong fight in Pune, an urban constituency with a mix of Marathi and a cosmopolitan populace.
{{/usCountry}}With Sanjay Kakade, Pune businessman and Rajya Sabha MP associated with the BJP now announcing that he will join the Congress, the party hopes to put up a tough fight.
Kakade, and Pravin Gaikwad, a controversial personality and Sambhaji Brigade member, are both keen to contest the polls on a Congress ticket, though loyalists do not want the party to consider an “outsider” for the Pune seat.
“BJP may claim credit for multiple projects. In reality, it hasn’t done anything as most of the projects were originally proposed when Congress and NCP were in power,” said Mohan Joshi, a Congress loyalist and Lok Sabha aspirant, along with Abhay Chhajed.
Under the Congress-NCP seat sharing arrangement, the Pune Lok Sabha seat is with the Congress, though the NCP did initially stake its claim.
Locals, too, feel that while projects have taken off, their woes will not come to an end soon. “They (BJP) talk about Metro and other things. Why don’t they first fix PMPML, Pune’s public transport?” asked Harshada Kulkarni, a software engineer based in Pune.
“We have not just implemented multiple welfare schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, distribution of LPG connections under Ujjwala Yojana, but also began work on projects which were not even on paper till 2014,” countered the BJP sitting MP, Anil Shirole.
While the BJP has not announced its candidate yet, Shirole is the front runner. Besides Shirole, district guardian minister Girish Bapat of the BJP is also in the race.