Parties compete to hold events, inaugurate projects as PMC term draws to a close

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The current term of the PMC will end on March 14 after which it will have an administrator to look after all civic affairs till the formation of new general body after civic elections. The polls were delayed due to the pandemic and also the state government’s decision to hold the elections only after ensuring that political reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) is restored.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Pune Metro Rail and laid the foundation stone of various mega civic infrastructure projects. This time, PMC’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has roped in former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil to inaugurate or lay foundation stone of civic projects across the city. Fadnavis will inaugurate the flyover on Karve road, which was constructed by Maha-Metro for the PMC. It is a double decker flyover with top half reserved for vehicles and lower half for Metro. The 550-metre long flyover is expected to ease the traffic chaos at Nal Stop. The BJP has also planned functions at
Shivajinagar, Nagar road and Solapur road.

The BJP is also planning to hold a function to inaugurate civic body’s Bharatratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College in the coming week. The party’s local unit will invite Union ministers at the event.

On the other hand, the main opposition, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), will be getting deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar for inauguration and foundation stone-laying functions of various civic works in the electoral ward represented by party corporators. It is planning events on Nagar road, Solapur road, Satara road and Warje. Earlier this week, NCP chief Sharad Pawar inaugurated a civic hospital in Warje.

Corporators of the Congress and the Shiv Sena, too, are trying to rope in their respective leaders for functions in their electoral wards. “These functions would be last as corporators for us and would also send out a good message about us ahead of civic polls,” said a Congress corporator.

A civic officer said, “Most importantly, the functions are being held through civic funds. Such functions cannot be organised by the corporator once the term ends on March 14. They will have to hold political functions with their money from March 15.”

The ruling BJP is trying hard to retain its hold over PMC, which it managed to win single-handedly for the first time in 2017. The NCP, for its part, wants to regain the power it lost over the civic body five years back. The opposition parties are undecided over continuing their state-level alliance for civic body elections even as local NCP and Congress leaders are pushing for contesting the elections separately.

The NCP, the Congress and the Shiv Sena together constitute the state’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.