Key architects of BJP victory in PCMC at odds, Chinchwad vs Bhosari battle underway

Jagtap, Landge camps raise pitch for a place in state cabinet; mayor, civic panel posts.

PCMC results, BJP victory, PCMC, Chinchwad vs Bhosari, pune civic polls, pune news, indian express news

(Left) Laxman Jagtap and Mahesh Landge at a press conference, months before the civic elections.

EVEN before the euphoria of its spectacular victory could die down, the two key architects of BJP’s unprecedented success in Pimpri-Chinchwad, MLAs Laxman Jagtap and Mahesh Landge, seem to have struck a discordant note. Supporters of the both MLAs have now raised the pitch for appointments to the mayor’s post and the all-powerful civic Standing Committee chairman’s post. Both camps are also demanding that their leader be appointed a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government.

In the run-up to the civic elections, the BJP had entrusted the responsibility of the Bhosari assembly segment to Mahesh Landge and the Chinchwad assembly segment to Laxman Jagtap.

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“From Bhosari, the BJP has secured 33 seats of the total 44 seats. Similarly, from Pimpri and Chinchwad assembly segments, BJP has 45 corporators of the 84. If we compare them, it is clear that Bhosari’s victory percentage was far better than Pimpri and Chinchwad’s. So the Chief Minister should give priority to Mahesh Landge while appointing a minister from Pimpri-Chinchwad,” Kartik Landge, brother and campaign manager of Mahesh Landge, told The Indian Express on Saturday.

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In the PCMC, if a BJP corporator from Bhosari gets the mayor’s post, a corporator from Chinchwad should get the Standing Committee chairman’s post, said Landge. “If a Bhosari corporator is given the Standing Committee chairman’s post, a Chinchwad corporator should be given the mayor’s post,” he said.

However, the Jagtap camp argued that the success rate theory put forward by the Landge camp was not valid. “Firstly, Jagtap was given the charge of Chinchwad assembly segment exclusively, while he was jointly in-charge of Pimpri along with MP Amar Sable and Azam Pansare,” said a close associate of Jagtap.

“Secondly, out of the 55 seats in Chinchwad, the BJP secured 35 seats and another four independents belong to BJP. Similarly, out of the 12 seats in Pimpri, Jagtap helped win 10 seats. Pimpri had 28 seats. So the total number of seats Jagtap managed to win is 49, which gives him a high success rate,” said Jagtap’s associate.

The Jagtap camp said in Bhosari, of the 48 seats, Mahesh Landge has helped win only 21 seats, not 33 seats. “The Landge camp may claim that the MLA was instrumental in helping win 33 seats. But in as many as 11 seats, old-time BJP loyalists, who Landge didn’t get along with, won on their own steam. Landge didn’t even campaign for them… so, his success rate is low compared to Jagtap’s,” said his associate.

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A reshuffle in the cabinet is likely soon and speculation is rife that either Landge or Jagtap will get a ministerial berth. While the Landge camp is openly gunning for a post in the cabinet, the Jagtap camp seems to be working quietly behind the scenes to secure a ministerial berth for the leader.

Jagtap, the president of BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad’s unit, played down the Landge camp’s bid for a ministerial post. “Wresting Pimpri-Chinchwad away from NCP is more important than securing a ministerial berth. I think we should leave it to the discretion of the CM…,” he said.

On Thursday, most BJP leaders had gathered at Pimpri chowk to celebrate the party’s victory in the civic polls, but Mahesh Landge was missing from the celebrations. On Friday, at another event to celebrate the party’s success, he arrived late and hardly spoke to Jagtap. While Jagtap left the venue soon, Landge also went his way a while later.

On Friday, when queried whether a leader from Pimpri-Chinchwad will get a post in the Fadnavis cabinet, District Guardian Minister Girish Bapat remained evasive. “It’s the CM’s prerogative…,” he said.

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The feud between Landge and Jagtap had come out in the open over the nomination of BJP general secretary Sarang Kamtekar from Indrayani Nagar area. While Jagtap had backed him, Landge was pushing his own nominee. The Chief Minister finally ruled in favour of Jagtap. This irked the Landge camp, which allegedly didn’t participate in Kamtekar’s campaign “whole-heartedly”. Kamtekar, who put up a decent fight, lost to Vikrant Lande, son of former MLA Vilas Lande.

However, Kamtekar said, “There is no fissure in the party. We remain as united as we were before the elections…The demand for posts from Bhosari and Chinchwad is reasonable and just…”

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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