Graduates’ constituency result rings alarm bell for Pune BJP unit

Victory of Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates Arun Lad and Jayant Asgaonkar has elated the mood in local units of both parties as they expect the outcome will have a positive impact on municipal corporation elections

The defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported candidate during Pune graduates’ and teachers’ constituency may prompt ghar-wapsi of many Congress and NCP workers who had joined BJP during 2017 civic elections when BJP emerged victorious.

Jayant Asgaonkar celebrates his victory at the Congress Bhavan on Friday. The MVA candidates won both the seats from Pune in the graduates’ and teachers’ constituency. (Rahul Raut/HT PHOTO)

The victory of Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates Arun Lad (NCP) and Jayant Asgaonkar (Congress) has elated the mood in local units of both parties as they expect the outcome will have a positive impact on municipal corporation elections.

The Pune graduates’ constituency was once dominated by BJP with leaders like Prakash Javadekar and Chandrakant Patil representing it. The party was hoping that positive outcome in recent graduates’ and teachers’ constituency polls will help it retain control over the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) polls scheduled in February 2022. The BJP currently has a strong presence of 98 corporators in the 162-member civic body.

According to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) city unit president and MLA Chetan Tupe, though there were five MLC elections, they were conducted in most districts in the state and mainly four regions which include western Maharashtra, Vidharbha, Marathwada and North Maharashtra.

“We can consider it as a trial run. Everywhere the voters have given us a clear mandate. At the same time, these results would definitely make an impact on the civic body elections,” said Tupe while stressing that many of the Congress and NCP leaders who had left before 2017, will return home.

The Congress has 11 corporators while NCP and Shiv Sena has 40 and 10 corporators respectively in the PMC. The three parties have already hinted that they are likely to fight polls together.

BJP city unit president Jagdish Mulik said there won’t be any impact on the municipal election.

Mulik said, “MLC election and local self-government elections are different. Winning one election does not mean that voters are with the Maha Vikas Aghadi. Success is not permanent. Even in graduate constituency, Pune city had given a lead to the BJP candidate. I don’t think that any of our members are willing to join the Maha Vikas Aghadi.”

Mulik said, “It is true that we tried to register a maximum number of voters for the graduate constituency. But most of the names do not appear in the final voter list.”

BJP leader Ujwal Keskar said, “In every election, some people use to join other parties. Those who are sure of not getting ticket from particular party, try to join other party. Some people might go but it would not affect the BJP.”