Journalism of Courage
The BJP made a clean sweep of the eight Assembly seats opening a new chapter in city politics dominated by the Congress and NCP, which have a strong presence in the municipal corporation. The BJP wrested two seats from former ally Shiv Sena, which finished second in four seats.
In the previous Assembly, the BJP had three legislators and Shiv Sena had two, while the Congress had two legislators and NCP one.
The BJP retained its seats Kasbapeth, Parvati and Khadakwasla and won Kothrud and Hadapsar that were with the Shiv Sena. It showed the door to Congress in Shivajinagar and Pune Cantonment and pushed NCP to third position in Vadgaonsheri.
The Shiv Sena was the second best performer with the party finishing second in four of the eight seats. The Congress was second in three seats.
The NCP that holds power in the civic body was second in one seat. Five of its candidates were placed third.
In the 2012 civic elections, the BJP was fourth and the NCP was the leading party followed by the Congress and MNS. Shiv Sena was placed behind BJP in the Pune Municipal Corporation.
All the three sitting legislators Girish Bapat, Madhuri Misal and Bhimrao Tapkir were re-elected but the biggest surprise was from Pune Cantonment seat, where BJP candidate Dilip Kamble defeated Congress legislator Ramesh Bagwe, who was tipped to be the favourite and expected to win in view of the cosmopolitan nature of the segment and its minority votes.
The victory of Vijay Kale of the BJP from Shivajinagar over Congress legislator Vinayak Nimhan was also unexpected considering he was given party ticket on the last day of filing of nomination and there was factionalism in the BJP in the Assembly segment.
BJP candidate Jagdish Mulik won by the thinnest margin in the city, 5,325 votes. He defeated Shiv Sena candidate Sunil Tingre while sitting NCP legislator Bapu Pathare was pushed to third position.
In a straight fight with its former ally, BJP’s Medha Kulkarni defeated Shiv Sena legislator Chandrakant Mokate in Kothrud and Yogesh Tilekar defeated Sena legislator Mahadev Babar in Hadapsar.
