On August 29, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office on Jungli Maharaj road was flooded with aspirants wanting to contest the upcoming assembly polls and this was a reflection of the party’s confidence of repeating their victorious 2014 performance.
The party currently has 100 per cent representation in Pune through all eight assembly segments.
From 23 aspirants in 2014, the number of hopefuls this time reached 104. The successive victories post 2014 – Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections – have made party workers upbeat.
Progress on the metro rail project, town planning schemes and initiatives taken under the Smart City mission have been no less than ad-campaigns for the party, though poor mass transport leading to frequent traffic chaos, job losses, and lack of basic amenities in newly merged areas continue to be grave issues, which the Opposition wishes to encash.
“I am happy to see the metro rail project progressing fast, but traffic is in a state of mess. The BJP should have paid attention to it,” said Amit Bhandari, a banker who stays in Bibvewadi.
If the 2014 assembly polls have been historic for the BJP in Pune (since the party won all eight assembly seats in Pune for the first time), the challenge now for the party is to retain the status quo. An alliance with the Shiv Sena may not help the BJP achieve the target as it has to cede some seats to its alliance partner.
{{/usCountry}}If the 2014 assembly polls have been historic for the BJP in Pune (since the party won all eight assembly seats in Pune for the first time), the challenge now for the party is to retain the status quo. An alliance with the Shiv Sena may not help the BJP achieve the target as it has to cede some seats to its alliance partner.
{{/usCountry}}For the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the challenge is two-fold. The alliance, battling its existence in Pune, has to first re-energise its cadre, and win the polls. The back-to-back defeats have brought down the morale of the Congress and NCP workers, a reflection of it is seen throughout the party office. The Congress Bhavan, a historic place that houses Congress party’s office in Pune, wears an energised look only when a senior leader visits the place.
For the BJP, the real challenge before the polls as party has to convince the Shiv Sena to cede most seats. While Sena wants at least three seats to contest, BJP leaders from the city have already staked their claim on all the eight seats.
“Our presence in the city is very strong and has been reflected through the civic and recent Lok Sabha polls. Therefore, we would like to contest all the eight seats in Pune,” said Madhuri Misal, city unit chief of BJP.
The Sena, on the other hand, is in no mood and wants Kothrud, Shivajinagar and Khadakwasla segments. If the BJP has to give some seats to Sena, the party may see rebellion amid large number of hopefuls.
From the Shivajinagar segment, 31 aspirants have shown interest to contest the polls while Parvati has only four hopefuls. Except for the Kasba peth assembly segment, where Girish Bapat resigned to move to the Lok Sabha, all seven MLAs are hopeful for tickets, which means there is little chance of fresh faces to be given tickets.
In Pimpri-Chinchwad, of the three seats, two are with the BJP while the third was bagged by independent candidate Mahesh Landage, who has now sided with the BJP. The civic poll outcome and LS election results have shown that the NCP and Congress haven’t been able to recover ground here.