Eye on civic polls, BJP retains Dheeraj Ghate as its Pune unit chief

With civic elections round the corner, the BJP has retained Dheeraj Ghate as its Pune unit chief after the party under his leadership performed well both in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The party hopes to repeat the performance in the civic elections.

The BJP has won the last three Lok Sabha elections in the city with party candidates being elected on all six seats in the Assembly elections it contested in the city. It single-handedly held power in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in the previous term after it emerged the single largest party in the 2017 civic elections. The PMC polls are pending since 2022 due to petitions related to reservations in civic elections being heard in the Supreme Court, which recently directed the state election office to hold the elections in the next four months.

Among the frontrunners for the post were former corporators Srinath Bhimale and Ganesh Bidkar along with Ghate. Ghate and Bhimale were upset after being denied party tickets in the Assembly elections. Ghate had offered to quit the post but the party leadership urged him to continue. Bhimale too was asked to wait for better opportunities in future.

The party had taken the views of sitting and former MPs, MLAs and MLCs to decide the city unit chief. “I will continue to work hard for the party and am confident of getting the BJP elected to power in the PMC,” Ghate said.