The bypoll to the Chinchwad Assembly constituency was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap.
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With the electoral process for the bypoll to the Chinchwad Assembly seat starting Tuesday, it is increasingly becoming clear there will be a contest—and a stiff one at that—with the Maharashtra BJP directing its local unit to gear up for the election. At the same time, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is also not ready to give up the seat without a contest.
The polling will be held on February 26 and the counting will take place on March 2. The bypoll to the Chinchwad Assembly constituency was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap. Jagtap, who had been elected thrice from the seat, died on January 3 after a prolonged illness. The Chinchwad seat came into existence in 2009.
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“The Chinchwad bypoll election process will start from Tuesday after gazette notification. The filing of nomination forms will begin tomorrow. February 7 will be the last date for filing nomination papers. From February 8-10 candidates can withdraw their nomination papers,” Balasaheb Khandekar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, told The Indian Express Monday.
The BJP, which has been pinning its hopes on an unopposed election, seems to be reconciled to the fact that a contest is very much on the cards. This is because the NCP and Shiv Sena, MVA partners, have declared their intention to contest the seat and rebuffed the BJP’s call for following “political tradition” in Maharashtra. The “political tradition,” BJP leaders said, relates to ensuring the unopposed election of the relative of a deceased MLA if they are fielded.
“We have started preparing for the election. Our state leadership has directed us to get ready for the election. We will leave no stone unturned to get our candidate elected,” Pimpri-Chinchwad BJP President Mahesh Landge told The Indian Express Monday.
The BJP, however, remained non-committal about who will contest the seat. “It is for the state leadership to decide. Whoever the party fields, we will go out to ensure his or her victory,” said Landge. “There is no clue as to who will be fielded. But a decision is expected this week,” he said when asked whether the party has decided to field a Jagtap family member.
The BJP believes that whoever is fielded, the candidate will win by a big margin. “Firstly, there is a sympathy wave in favour of the BJP. And secondly, the kind of development work that Laxman bhau carried out during his tenure has drawn high praise from the voters. And that is why we believe whoever the candidate party fields, he or she will win with a margin of over one lakh votes,” Landge, who is also an MLA, said.
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The NCP, which has been traditionally contesting the seat, is also getting ready for the challenge. “If any decision regarding unopposed election has to be taken, it will be taken by our State leadership. So far, we have no clue about it. And therefore we are already in poll mode. Our campaign is already underway,” said Ajit Gavhane, President, Pimpri-Chinchwad NCP unit. “We have strong contenders for the seat,” said Gavhane.
There are at least 5-6 claimants from the Nationalist Congress Party—including key leaders Nana Kate and Bhausaheb Bhoir. “I am already preparing for the election,” Kate said while speaking to the Express.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) also wants to contest the seat and has created unease in the MVA. “The Congress and NCP should decide about contesting the Kasba seat but they should leave the Chinchwad seat for the Shiv Sena. Our candidate had given a tough fight last time to the BJP candidate. We have a strong presence in the Chinchwad seat,” Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut told The Indian Express.
Kailas Kadam, President, Pimpri-Chinchwad Congress, said, “If no consensus is reached in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, then we are also fully prepared to contest the election… We have several claimants for the seat.”
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Rahul Kalate, who had secured more than one lakh votes against Laxman Jagtap in the 2019 election but had lost, is also looking to contest the Chinchwad Assembly bypolls.
“I am hoping to become the consensus candidate of the Maha Vikas Aghadi. I have already been preparing for the elections for months now. My door-to-door campaigning is going on for a long time. I hope the NCP and Shiv Sena will reach an agreement. Last time, I was an Independent candidate drawing support from all parties. I had given a tough fight to the sitting MLA,” Kalate said.
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.
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