Congress rebels face six-year expulsion as party cracks down on dissent in Pune

Do you feel such strong action is necessary?

Bagul is the incumbent vice-president of the party and has filed his nomination from Parvati. Anand is a former vice-president of the Khadki Cantonment Board and has filed his papers from Shivajinagar, while Vyavahare is a former mayor who has filed her papers from Kasba Peth.

Our party had been given the Kasba and Shivajinagar seats and we have fielded Ravindra Dhangekar and Datta Bahirat from there. The Parvati assembly ticket was given to Ashwini Kadam of the NCP. This kind of rebellion is against the party directives and hence, we have decided to take stern action.

We also have proof that Anand’s wife Pooja, who heads the Congress party’s women’s cell, has been canvassing for her husband. We have submitted proof of this to the state leadership.We have also recommended that Pooja Anand be expelled from the party.

They were Congress loyalists. Will they pose a threat to the official Congress candidates in Kasba and Shivajinagar?

We will go to the constituencies and explain to the voters that the party has done a lot for these leaders, who have now decided to rebel. How can they say that they have been denied a fair chance? Aba Bagul was a six-time corporator and deputy mayor of the city, apart from being the chairman of the standing committee in the Pune Municipal Corporation. Vyavahre was the first woman mayor of the city. How can Bagul and Vyavahare encase themselves with the loyalist tag when both have left the party twice in the past? No, they will not pose a threat.

Dhangekar, the Kasba candidate, has done a lot of work in his constituency. Here, people have earlier rejected the BJP. In the Cantonment constituency, the sitting BJP MLA faces an anti-incumbency wave as he has not done any concrete work. We anticipate that our candidate for the seat, Ramesh Bagwe, will win with a good margin, especially since our party had won by a margin of more than 13,000 votes from this constituency during the Lok Sabha elections.

What is the campaign strategy for the assembly seats in Pune?

We have set up our coordination committees at the city level and jointly with the MVA at the assembly-segment level. All issues will be addressed at these levels. We also have four to five other committees that will take care of legal issues and other critical concerns with care and integrity. We also have teams which will work across social media platforms to provide reliable information and engage with the public.

In addition, we have booth committees for the assembly segments. Each booth, which caters to approximately 1,000 voters, will have 11 booth committee members. Each polling station has at least eight to nine booths and the committees will ensure that they focus on each booth from the very start, performing tasks like handing out pamphlets, manifestos and voting slips.

What are the key issues in this assembly election?

While Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi recently unveiled the Congress party’s manifesto, we will soon release a city-focused manifesto. This manifesto will address key urban challenges like traffic congestion, river pollution, expanding flyover infrastructure, and making Metro transport more affordable.

For example, while a Metro ticket might cost around Rs 10, parking fees are often higher. We will aim to address this imbalance. We are also committed to improving public transport by deploying smaller buses for better connectivity in the Peth areas. Despite attempts by the BJP government to shut down the BRTS, we believe the system is essential and plan to reinstate it soon.

The Congress has consistently prioritized women’s safety and we are committed to strengthening these efforts. We will ensure that the police fulfill their responsibilities diligently, putting an end to the practice of paying for and getting posts. We will ensure there are no fake encounters and will give emphasis on setting up fast-track courts.

What is your party’s take on the Maratha reservation issue?

Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil has backed out of electoral politics. There is dissatisfaction among the Maratha community with the Eknath Shinde government over the reservation issue . The Shinde administration initially promised reservation, issued a letter, and then backed out. Now, the BJP is shifting focus and challenging the Congress to commit to Maratha reservations within the OBC category. Until the caste census is released, the exact details of who qualifies for what type of reservation remain uncertain.