AAP picks Ware; Bhatia, Kulkarni slam party

Pune LS seat: Bhatia to contest as Independent, says his complaint against Prashant Bhushan did him in

Subhash Ware at a function in Shaniwarwada on Sunday evening after his candidature was announced by the party leadership in New Delhi. Sandeep Daundkar

Socialist leader Subhash Ware will be the Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate from Pune Lok Sabha constituency where he faces challenge from the Congress and the BJP who have been traditional rivals. Among the “strong contenders” for the seat, AAP is the first one to have declared the name of its candidate, even though the final dates for elections are yet to be announced. The Congress and the BJP are still grappling with several “key names”.

The central leadership of AAP declared Ware’s name in New Delhi on Sunday but kept the suspense on for other seats like Maval, Baramati and Shirur in Pune district. Ware pipped former bureaucrat Arun Bhatia and realtor D S Kulkarni in the race to emerge as the party choice.

Though not an AAP member, Bhatia was trying hard to get the party’s nomination. After being denied ticket, he wasted no time in slamming the leadership, saying it “does not believe in supporting honest candidates”. “I am disappointed and surprised AAP did not pick me. I have nothing against Ware, but on merits I deserved to be nominated,” said Bhatia, stressing that there was “no difference between Congress, NCP, BJP and the AAP”. “They have nothing to do with honest and truthful candidates,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Bhatia said a letter that he wrote to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal against party leader Prashant Bhushan could be the reason why AAP cold-shouldered him. “After applying for AAP ticket, I had written to Kejriwal urging him to remove Prashant Bhushan from any post that he holds in the party. This is because there have been charges against Bhushan regarding his Noida plots and he has never clarified on the controversy,” he said.

Stating that he would now contest as an Independent, Bhatia said his fight would be against the BJP as the Congress had “lost fizz”. “Besides, I will highlight the double standards practised by AAP leadership,” said Bhatia who had twice unsuccessfully contested from the Pune seat. Bhatia had created ripples when he decided to enter politics in 2004. He secured 70,000 votes that year and managed only 30,000 votes in 2009.

Realtor D S Kulkarni, who was also hoping for an AAP ticket, too, debunked the party. He said there was a distinct “lack of transparency” on part of the party in allotting tickets. “We were asked to apply online and we did, but post that we did not understand how the tickets were given,” he said. Stating that the process smelt of the “high command culture” and it was not expected out of AAP, Kulkarni said he would not contest the election this time.

Meanwhile, Ware said their campaign had started last year itself. “We have been taking to streets on issues of corruption and misgoverance and we will continue to reach out to the people,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Other than highlighting the issues of public interest, Ware said, his party would raise issues related to inflation, lack of social security, old age pension and other matters before the voters. “There is complete dearth of public infrastructure in Pune and we will offer change through our party. Traffic jam, lack of infrastructure are plaguing the city and we will ask the voters to give us a chance to address these issues,” he said.

About the possibility of discontentment over his candidature, Ware said the party had chalked out a process that was followed to the dot. “Maybe I was chosen over others because I am an old worker of the party,” he said.

Who is SUBHASH WARE
Unlike other activists in Pune who never fail to remain in the limelight, Subash Ware has rarely been heard of. AAP leaders said he was actually an old hand in the socialist movement in the state. He has been associated with the Rashtriya Seva Dal, S M Joshi Foundation, Chhatrabharati and other organisations. He had participated and spearheaded agitations for pensioners’ rights, social security for unorganised sectors and other movements. Ware was one of the founding members of the AAP and is also part of the national executive committee of the party. APP picked Ware from among 40 who had applied online from Pune.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Parthasarathi Biswas

Partha Sarathi Biwas is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express with 10+ years of experience in reporting on Agriculture, Commodities and Developmental issues. He has been with The Indian Express since 2011 and earlier worked with DNA. Partha's report about Farmers Producer Companies (FPC) as well long pieces on various agricultural issues have been cited by various academic publications including those published by the Government of India. He is often invited as a visiting faculty to various schools of journalism to talk about development journalism and rural reporting. In his spare time Partha trains for marathons and has participated in multiple marathons and half marathons. ... Read More

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories