Civic battle royale gets into top gear

The election is set to change the political scenario in the civic body,with an equal number of women ensured in the new general body of the PMC along with men corporators. The existing strength of elected representatives in the PMC is 144,but now the contest will be for 152 seats. The panel system is followed in elections,with two members to be elected from each panel. Also,the 50 per cent reservation for women in civic bodies has ensured that at least one woman is elected from each of the 76 panels.

The NCP is the ruling party,which held power with the help of the saffron combine initially and later with the Congress’ support. Now,these parties are taking on each other to establish their supremacy in the civic body.

The PMC will see a direct fight between the NCP,Congress,the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance,the MNS,citizens’ group,smaller parties and Independents. The NCP and Congress are contesting separately on all the 152 seats,while the MNS is contesting on 144 seats due to failure in getting competent candidates for rest of the seats.

Citizens’ groups have also taken a plunge into civic polls and is contesting 15 seats in the PMC under the Pune Nagarik Sanghatana (PNS) banner. Similarly,the Pune Janhit Aghadi (PJA),led by sitting corporator Ujjwal Keskar has fielded six candidates for the PMC. Keskar was suspended by the BJP after he contested the Assembly election in Kothrud as an Independent.

There were around 3,500 applications for the 152 seats,but the number went down on the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The election office is yet to ascertain the number of candidates in the fray as it has been decentralised. The number of Independents is huge as many aspirants failed to get a party ticket but were firm on contesting the polls.

There are 14 election offices,where counting will also be carried out. Earlier,it was being done at a centralised location at Shivajinagar.

In Pimpri-Chinchwad,where the NCP has the upper hand,there will be a four-cornered contest among NCP,BJP-Shiv Sena-RPI,Congress and the MNS. Of the 128 wards — in last elections there were 105 — the NCP has already won two unopposed. NCP had won a brute majority in the 2007 elections and had single-handedly ruled the PCMC. On the last day of withdrawal of nominations,894 candidates remained in the fray. In all,378 candidates withdrew their nominations and 34 nominations were declared invalid. “There will be over 1,300 polling centres across the town,” said PCMC additional municipal commissioner Amrut Sawant.

Candidates shift loyalties as NCP gains

Waiting till the end with the hope of getting party ticket,a few sitting corporators had to join other parties to continue their presence in the PMC. Among the prominent switchovers was former mayor Rajani Tribhuvan of Congress who joined NCP after she was denied ticket by the party to make way for another sitting corporator Lata Rajguru. Shiv Sena corporator Leena Pansare too decided to contest on NCP ticket as the Sena preferred another candidate to contest on party ticket. Rekha Tingre of Congress shifted her loyalties to NCP as soon as the elections were announced. On the other hand,the sitting corporators that failed to get the ticket included Ashwini Kadam,Sunil Tingre,Hanif Sheikh,Bhimrao Kharat,Prakash Galande,Alka Khade and Akrur Kudale of NCP and Dilip Umbarkar of the BJP. MNS has given ticket to all its sitting corporators. There have been a few sitting corporators,both men as well as women,who have to give up their chances to make it once again to PMC due to change in reservation of seats. However,they have managed to get their kin to get the party ticket.