Know Your Panel

For the civic elections,the area is considered as NCP strong hold. But,during the assembly elections,Mahadeo Babar of Shiv Sena – BJP alliance had emerged victorious by defeating Congress-NCP candidate Balasaheb Shivarkar.

With reservation for open category woman,sitting corporator Sulochana Tupe will be seeking ticket again from NCP for contesting the coming civic elections. Sources said that prominent Congress leaders Dilip Tupe and Ashok Jamdade,both former corporators from the region,may also try to get tickets for their wives from this panel as the party will not be contesting elections in alliance with NCP. The Shiv Sena,BJP and MNS are looking for strong candidates who would give tough fight to NCP and Congress in the panel.

Besides,no major political party in the panel has a known OBC face. So there are chances that new OBC male candidates would get a chance to contest election from the panel.

“ NCP has done tremendous work for the people of Hadapsar. I initiated the Rs 26 crore auditorium project in my ward. Large scale developments in crematoriums and canal region were done. Linking roads in residential areas were constructed. Express lines were laid for improving water supply. People have seen and experienced the change due to our work. So the face does not matter here. Any NCP candidate will win from the panel,” said NCP corporator Chetan Tupe,who is son of former MP Vitthal Tupe. About half of Tupe’s electoral ward has now come under this panel. Asked about the panel through which he would be contesting this elections,Tupe said,“I would be following the orders of my party.”

Meanwhile,Savita Anil More,who is seeking ticket from MNS said that people are not happy with the sitting corporators who failed they failed to tackle many civic issues properly. “The internal roads in the region are in bad condition. Garbage around the small canals flowing through region not cleaned,causing health and hygiene problems. Situation of many drainage lines is bad,” she said.

There are A few big residential societies in the panel. But the panel mainly comprises middle class population. Also,there are about seven slum areas having huge number of voting population.

Two wards Wanawadi (ward no 89) and Ramtekdi (90) form the panel of which Wanawadi comprises of nearly 80 per cent and part of Hadapsar’s Ramtekdi slum and industrial estate forms panel no 46. The panel which is reserved for woman in the open category and for a scheduled caste is likely to be dominated by the Congress party. With both the exisiting corporators being from the Congress party,the panel seems to comfortably fit into the scheme of things for the Congress party which has been having a hold for the last 30 years in the area. The area has both cosmopolitan societies as well as slums.

With it presently falling under the Hadapsar assembly constituency and part of it under the Pune Cantonment assembly constituency both the assembly constituencies have been largely dominated by the Congress party,leaving the last elections which saw the defeat of Congress loyalist Balasaheb Shivarkar against Shiv Sena’s Mahadeo Babar.

However the present wards which have been merged to form the panel has Congress corporators Abhijit Shivarkar from Wanawadi and Chitra Londe from the Ramtekdi slums showcase their work and are content that the demarkation has not affected the vote bank much. “Although I may not be able to contest from this panel,the party will decide on the right candidate,” says Shivarkar while Chitra Londe’s husband,Satish Londe,who has served two terms as corporator before the ward was reserved for women,is keen to contest in the Scheduled Caste category. “Of course the party is free to decide,” he says. While insiders say that Balasaheb Shivarkar’s wife Kavita Shivarkar may make her foray into politics and is a name which is being considered. “Tai has been the backbone to the family and she knows everybody in the area and has been relentlessly working with her husband and son for the area. She will definitely be looked as a keen contestant,”say keen political watchers in the area.

Londe it might just be as easy as he feels that he has a hold on the area since 1997. “We are awaiting a final decision,”he says. Interestingly,the panel which was formed in 2001-02 saw three Congress people elected from the area_Shivaji Kedari,Satish Londe and Dr Durga Patil. Abhijit Shivarkar who might look at Panel no 61 to contest with the present reservation says that the party would have to take a decision on where he could contest for this elections. Traffic congestion,hawkers issues and pig menace continue to dog the Wanowadi area while drainage problems and water issues in the slums of Hadapsar are some of the key issues which remains to be addressed. Even as the area is slated to get its first Mahatma Phule Sanskrutik Bhavan,many schools are being taken up for infrastructure development in the areas. Residents do not have much complain about the main roads in the Wanawadi area but want more footpaths and for the Hadapsar area they want a solution to ease traffic congestion.

This is one panel that would be looked open very much in the political circle as there is going to be a tough fight between Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Shiv Sena. With sitting MNS corporator Vasant More all certain to contest from the panel,the Shiv Sena will have to put a lot to stake for displaying its supremacy.

The panel has been formed by merging the entire Katraj,70 per cent of Upper Indiranagar and small part of Bibewadi electoral ward. Now,the Katraj ward is represented by More while the Upper Indiranagar is represented by sena corporator Deepali Oswal while BJP corporator Sunita Chintal is representing the Bibewadi area. Thus,the panel will witness a fight between the established ones in Katraj and Upper Indiranagar.

The panel is a developing area and is the fringe area of Pune Municipal Corporation. The Pune-Satara highway forms its boundary on one side while the Katraj-Kondhwa passes cuts through it. The Katraj area is a domination of housing societies while the Upper Indiranagar has a large number of slum population making the panel mix of those leaving in apartments and slums. However,this has added to the concerns of the probables to deal with both the class.

“I got elected to PMC in previous civic polls by upsetting established politicians. The MNS was a new political party then but has grown there after. I am relying on voters to respond to the development work carried out by me in the area,” said More.

He claimed to resolve the various civic issues of the area by speeding up development work. “I have transformed the area in last five years brought most of the civic facilities for citizens,” More said expressing confidence of again making it to the civic body.

The sitting MNS corporator also contested the assembly poll from the Hadapsar assembly constituency that includes the Katraj area. “The MNS has nurtured the area very well and my responsibility would be to get one more party candidate elected to the PMC from the panel. I want to prove that the panel is a MNS bastion,” he added.

However,his concern is that the slum area in the panel from Upper Indiranagar electoral ward would stand by him or not. “The slum voters have been fooled by political parties in the past as there is no development. I will convince the slumdwellers of transforming their life by getting in PMC development work and schemes for the betterment of citizens while urging them to not to fall prey to monetary benefits by candidates during the poll,” More said.

The Sena on the other hand is not ready to give up as husband of sitting corporator Balasaheb Oswal almost ready to take the challenge of defeating the sitting corporator. “The electoral ward represented by my wife has been distributed in three different panels. Most of it is in Panel 76 from where I would seek party ticket,” said Oswal.

The sitting corporator has been carrying out development work that merely get publicity but he has failed to address the woes of citizens. “People want civic facilities at their doors and not infrastructure development that would not add to any improvement in their life,” he said.

The Shiv Sena has a strong base and we have been working hard to improve the life of poor in slums,Oswal said adding the same approach would be carried forward in the other parts that have been included in the newly constituted panel.

This panel has been formed by merging two electoral wards –Raj Bhavan and Pune University. The Nationalist Congress Party has a strong hold on both these wards with NCP corporators Usha Jadhav and Suresh Shewale representing the two wards.

In 2007,Usha Jadhav had contested and won the elections on Congress party ticket. She was one of the dozen corporators from Pune who was elected on the basis of just 10 per cent votes. She had bagged 1,494 votes (10 per cent) of the total 14,687 votes as it had witnessed the lowest turnout (36 per cent) of voters.

Three months after being elected,she had some mis-understandings between the party following which she had resigned. But she contested on NCP ticket in the by-elections and was again elected as a corporator.

“The new reservation for scheduled caste (women) and open category will be a win-win situation for me and our party as I fall in the category of SC (women). I am sure that the open category candidate will also be an NCP person,” Jadhav said.

Residents of this panel complain of heavy traffic at the Pune University chowk despite the flyover. “Although the flyover has improved the traffic problem to some extent,it has failed to ease traffic going from Raj Bhavan road to university circle. “Long queues and traffic congestion continues during peak hours,” said Arohi Inamdar,a resident of Siddharth Nagar. Another problem that residents face is erratic water supply in some areas. “The problem is grave in summers and we are left with no choice,but to buy water from tanker owners,” said Pradeep Jaiswal,another resident.