Disgruntled Pune BJP leader Medha Kulkarni to be rehabilitated in Rajya Sabha

Kulkarni’s name started making the rounds after it was revealed that she was seeking a no-dues certificate from various government departments—a normal procedure before filing nomination for the election. “There was an application from Medha Kulkarni for a no-dues certificate from the civic property tax department,” said a civic body official.

Kulkarni is close to the RSS. In her political career, she was first elected as a BJP corporator in Pune and was a potential mayoral candidate after the saffron party came to power in the civic body for the first time. In 2014, she was elected from Kothrud, which has been a BJP bastion and has a Bramhin vote bank, the BJP’s strength in Pune.

In 2019, Kulkarni was denied the party ticket to make way for Chandrakant Patil, without taking her into confidence. She protested against it and has since been at loggerheads with Patil. The BJP later made her the national vice-president of its women’s wing. She has since toured across the country to strengthen the party.

Another name that had cropped up as a potential Rajya Sabha candidate from Pune is that of Harshvardhan Patil, who joined the BJP in 2019. He had represented Indapur in the Assembly as a Congress legislator and was a minister in the Congress-NCP as well as the Shiv Sena-BJP governments. He is known to have influence in Indapur, which is part of the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency.

However, Kulkarni’s name did not feature in the initial list of candidates declared by the BJP, even though former Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan’s name was included, just a day after he joined the party.

The terms of two Rajya Sabha members who are residents of Pune, Vandana Chavan of the NCP and Prakash Javadekar of the BJP, are about to end.