This is an archive article published on February 25, 2023
BJP, NCP top leaders rally to secure seat, rebel candidate says ‘have support of people’
Sharad Pawar told party workers during a meeting that the by-polls are crucial to make a comeback in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, where the NCP had ruled for 15 years.
BJP, NCP top leaders rally to secure seat, rebel candidate says ‘have support of people’
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The campaigning for the Chinchwad Assembly by-poll — which is scheduled to take place on Sunday (February 26) — came to an end on Friday. The counting of votes will take place on March 2. Unlike the straight fight in the 2019 Assembly elections, the Chinchwad seat this time witnesses a three-cornered contest between the candidates of two major political parties (NCP and Bharatiya Janata Party) and an Independent candidate.
As the candidates held roadshows, padyatras, bike rallies, and corner meetings on Friday, top leaders like Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and party leader Ajit Pawar also made their presence felt during the campaigning. The BJP and Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction fielded 20 to 25 ministers, MLAs, and former ministers to campaign for the party candidate, Ashwini Jagtap. Several MVA leaders including Sharad Pawar, Congress state president Nana Patole, and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray campaigned for the NCP candidate Nana Kate.
The Chinchwad constituency, which was formed in 2009, was won by Laxman Jagtap thrice. He initially contested as a rebel NCP candidate, and then won the seat twice on a BJP ticket. After Jagtap’s death in January this year, BJP fielded his wife Ashwini from
the seat.
“I have received a good response from the public throughout the campaign, and it was no different on the last day (Friday) too. Everyone interacted with us, and expressed their grievances and suggestions freely,” said Ashwini Jagtap. Shankar Jagtap, her campaign manager and brother-in-law, said, “…The party has supportive and cooperated with us fully…” .
Fadnavis said, “We have resolved the issue of penalty tax on encroachments, which brought relief to thousands of residents.” He also met a delegation of housing complex members and promised to resolve water supply issues.
Meanwhile, Pimpri-Chinchwad NCP chief Ajit Gavahane said the presence of top leaders from MVA has changed the voters’ mood in favour of party candidate Nana Kate.
Kate said he was “overwhelmed” by the support he received from across Chinchwad. “Change is in the air. NCP is on everyone’s mind… It is the NCP which changed the landscape of Pimpri-Chinchwad during its 15-year rule, and therefore, people will return to NCP again,” Kate said.
Sharad Pawar told party workers during a meeting that the by-polls are crucial to make a comeback in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, where the NCP had ruled for 15 years.
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Independent candidate Rahul Kalate said, “People from the constituency had taken over my campaigning. Except VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar, there were no big leaders for my campaign, but I have got a good response from Wakad, Rahatni, Ravet, Kiwale, Poonawale, Kalewadi and Thergaon…”.
Many residents, however, took a different stand. Dr SD Patil, a hypnotherapist from Rahatani, said, “I don’t think any candidate can claim that he or she is ahead of others..”
Dattatrya Deshmukh, president of Pimpri-Chinchwad Housing Societies Federation, said, “There are over 3,000 housing complexes in Chinchwad constituency, and I don’t think there is one residential complex that doesn’t face water shortage… It remains to be seen how the voters react to this issue.”
Sachin Dhole, deputy collector and poll officer for Chinchwad, said, “…There were 20 cases of violation of the model code of conduct… we are looking into them.”
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
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