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This is an archive article published on February 1, 2017

Congress, NCP leaders hint at slim chances of pre-poll alliance

Pimpri mayor, who was heading for BJP, files paper from NCP.

congress, NCP, congress-NCP, pre-poll alliance, pune civic polls, pune municipal elections, PMC polls, PMC elections, Pune civic polls 2017, pune news, indian express news Pimpri Mayor Shakuntala Dharade files her nomination from panel number 29 on Tuesday. (Source: Express photo)

FOLLOWING THE fallout of BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the Congress-NCP pre-poll alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad also seems unlikely. Leaders of both the parties indicated on Tuesday that there was a bleak possibility of a pre-poll alliance. NCP State Unit Chief Sunil Tatkare said he had spoken to MPCC chief Ashok Chavan about the alliance. “It was important that it happens today, as time was running out for filing nominations… till evening, I don’t know what is happening,” he said.

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Congress leader Abhay Chhajed said discussions were going on and he was not aware about the latest updates.
NCP’s Pune City President Vandana Chavan said the Congress is demanding certain seats, which NCP was not ready to part with. “We cannot say whether the alliance will actually take place. If there is a disagreement, it might not happen,” she said.

In Pimpri-Chinchwad, NCP Yogesh Behl clearly indicated that alliance between the two parties may not happen. “NCP is on a strong ground. But Congress hardly has any presence in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Several of its sitting corporators have joined other parties,” he said, adding that discussions are still underway.

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Meanwhile, Pimpri Mayor Shakuntala Dharade filed her nomination from panel number 29 on Tuesday. NCP President Sanjog Waghere and party leader Nana Kate accompanied her. Her filing of nomination from NCP surprised many. She is considered close to MLA Laxman Jagtap, who was instrumental in picking her for the mayoral post.

On whether the BJP was trying to pressurise her, Mayor Dharade said, “I have filed my nomination from NCP and will contest on NCP ticket. There was no pressure or any attempt by the BJP to join their party.”

However, the mayor acknowledged that Jagtap played a role in her becoming the mayor.

In another development, three NCP corporators — Rajendra Jagtap, Shatrughan Kate and Vinayak Jagtap — resigned from NCP on Monday and joined the BJP. Since the two Jagtaps are related to BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad President and MLA Laxman Jagtap, their resignation was considered a forgone conclusion. Shatrughan Kate’s resignation also did not surprise anybody as he is considered a close confidant of Laxman Jagtap.

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Former MLA Anna Bansode has also resigned from the NCP and is reportedly planning to join the BJP, which has already roped in the likes of Independent MLA Mahesh Landge, former MP Gajanan Babar, NCP’s Muslim face Azam Pansare, union leader Yeshwant Bhosale, NCP women’s wing leader Sanjeevani Pandey and several sitting corporators, mainly from NCP.

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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