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This is an archive article published on February 25, 2017

PCMC elections 2017: BJP promises time-bound progress, denies rift

Most of the BJP leaders and newly-elected corporators, smiling and patting each other over the grand show in the polls, gathered in Pimpri on Friday.

PCMC polls, Pimpri chinchwad civic polls, PCMC poll results, BJP, india news, indian express BJP leaders celebrate the party’s victory in Pimpri on Friday. (Source: Express photo)

A DAY after its spectacular victory, the Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of the BJP tried to present a united front and dispelled any speculations about a face-off between their leaders, especially its president Laxman Jagtap and another party leader and MLA Mahesh Landge. The BJP has announced a time-bound progress plan for Pimpri-Chinchwad.

“We will set a three-month time-bound plan. I will review the plan every three months to find out what has been planned and what has been achieved,” said District Guardian Minister Girish Bapat, who had taken active part in campaigning and planning the BJP’s winning strategy in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The BJP won a staggering 77 seats against NCP’s 36. It also claimed that it has 78 seats as one of the victorious independent candidates was sponsored by it.

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Most of the BJP leaders and newly-elected corporators, smiling and patting each other over the grand show in the polls, gathered in Pimpri on Friday. The BJP leaders interacted with the media and shared their intentions to push the development work in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Besides Bapat, Jagtap, Landge, other leaders likes MP Amar Sable, general secretaries Sarang Kamtekar and Babu Nair, local leaders Sachin Patwardhan, Uma Khapre, Sanjeevani Pandey, Mauli Thorat were also present.

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To a question as why the NCP lost so badly despite the development it did in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Bapat said, “But NCP did lot of corruption… It could have done much more development but for the corruption.”

Bapat, however, said his party will not be vindictive. “We will open all cases of corruption, but we will not be vindictive,” he said.

Crediting the party’s spectacular victory to the united team work, Bapat said, “All the local leaders, including Laxman Jagtap and Mahesh Landge, spared no effort in ensuring party’s victory…It is clear that the plans and policies pursued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have got a thumbs up from the voters.”

Bapat said the BJP will do everything to live up to voters expectations. “Now that voters have reposed faith in the party, we will not let them down. We will push the development of Pimpri-Chinchwad,” he said.

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Though Mahesh Landge arrived late and left quickly, the BJP said there was no rift in the party. “There is no bitterness among the leaders in the party,” said Kamtekar.

In the evening, however, the Mahesh Landge camp said that since he had ensured 33 seats out of 44 seats in Bhosari with a winning percentage of 85, the MLA should be included in the state cabinet. “Mahesh Landge ensured the victory of 33 out of 44 candidates while Laxman Jagtap ensured victory of 45 out of 84 candidates in Chinchwad and Pimpri. Therefore, Mahesh Landge should get the nod,” said a Landge aide.

The Landge camp reacted quickly as Bapat was asked during a media interaction whether Laxman Jagtap will not get into the cabinet. Bapat said it was the Chief Minister’s prerogative. The CM had on Thursday called up Jagtap and complimented him on the party’s victory.

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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