NCP holds upperhand

This panel is formed by merging three old electoral wards.

This panel is formed by merging three old electoral wards. The Chatushrungi Mandir electoral war represented by NCP’s Yusuf Pathan is completely incorporated in this panel,around 30 per cent of two other wards – Fergusson College represented by NCP’s Nilesh Nikam and Gokhale Nagar represented by NCP’s Vinod Orse have been merged in this panel.

The area included has seen the dominance of Congress and NCP for more than a decade. Corporator Nitin Jagtap,who was earlier in NCP and now with Congress served two terms as corporator from Chaturshingi temple electoral ward. However,he was defeated by Pathan of NCP in recently held bypoll.

Consistent performance of Nikam in the civic polls made the party to entrust him with responsibility of standing committee chairman and also leader of House in PMC after senior party leader Anil Bhosale had resigned in protest of denial of party ticket to legislative council.

The new panel reservation,which has one seat for open (women) and another for open candidate,will clearly see a fight between the three NCP corporators. Only one of the three sitting NCP corporators from the area will be making it to the civic body and hence there is competition within the party.

Pathan is banking on caste politics and counting on votes of the Muslim population,which,according to him,is on majority in this area. Nikam has experience to his credit and consistent performance in civic polls.

The NCP is also set to get a challenge from the Congress as the party still holds its presence in the area. Congress legislator from the area,Vinayak Nimhan,is all gearing up to get party candidates get elected from the panel. The alliance of SHiv Sena,BJP and RPI would make its presence felt as the area has large number of slum that has presence of RPI.

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