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Days after Ajit Pawar engineered a split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), swearing-in as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra, the faction led by him appointed Deepak Mankar as the chief of the Pune unit of the party.
A letter of his appointment was issued by Sunil Tatkare, appointed as the state unit chief of NCP by its working president Praful Patel. Before the split, the party’s state unit was headed by Jayant Patil, while Pune city unit’s chief was Prashant Jagtap.
Mankar was with the Congress in the past and was appointed as deputy mayor. He had switched over to the NCP a few years ago and was a candidate for the Assembly elections. However, he lost the polls, but was elected to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). He had recently expressed his desire to contest the polls from the Pune Lok Sabha seat that fell vacant following the death of sitting BJP MP Girish Bapat.
“The party has a strong foundation in the city. I will work hard to mobilise the cadre to make it stronger,” Mankar said.