PCMC polls: After several rounds of talks, BJP and Shiv Sena decide to go solo

Without sounding bitter, Barne said it seems BJP could not strike an alliance with them as they too wanted to ensure justice was done to their party workers. ”Even before this, BJP and Shiv Sena had fought separately in local body elections. Therefore just two hours before the deadline for filing of nomination papers ended, we had to take the decision of going solo,” Barne said.

Barne said initially, they had demanded 29 seats for PCMC polls. ”In our first meeting, we had agreed on 16 seats which meant Sena would contest those numbers of seats. Later, BJP gave us 13 and then in the last meeting yesterday, they offered us 12,” he said.

Barne said, ”There were two seats which the BJP wanted. However, I told them that those two seats were wanted by those who joined our party from the Uddhav Sena. They have already started campaigning. And therefore we told them it would not be possible to part with those two seats. I told them that we were ready to contest on 10 seats. But despite discussions with local leaders and state leadership, things did not work out…They too had to adjust on some seats.”

Barne said these things happen at local levels. ”There were no tensions between the two parties. We held discussions but could not reach a solution to the seat-sharing,” he said.

Barne denied that BJP wanted to contest two seats, one of Nilesh Barne and another on which he was trying to field his son, Vishwajeet Barne. ”Nilesh Barne had been a sitting corporator for 10 years. And my son was working as Sena’s youth wing chief of Western Maharashtra. My son has been working for five years for the party. And therefore we had demanded these two seats,” he said.

Barne said that the NCP local leadership had called him up and sought an alliance with Sena. ”However, BJP and Sena have been together for years and that is why we were trying to forge an alliance with them. Even our party president was insisting on the alliance with BJP but we could not succeed,” he said.

Barne said he was not in a position to reveal the names of Sena candidates who would take on BJP candidates. ”We will have to analyse it, we will reveal it soon,” he said.

Raju Durge, general secretary of BJP district unit, said,”We tried our best to forge an alliance. However, due to overwhelming demand from our party ”karyakartas,” we could not succeed in forming the alliance.”

Durge said he and his daughter have been denied tickets by the party. ”But we have accepted the party’s decision as true soldiers. We want to serve the party, we were not hankering for the nomination,” he said.

BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Shatrughan Kate said ,”Like the Sena, we too wanted to have an alliance with them. However, because of one particular seat we could not agree. A lot of time was lost in the discussions and the deadline was nearing. And therefore we took the decision to part ways.”

Kate added, ”We have given 40 per cent nominations to youngsters. We have also given priority to those who have consistently slogged for the party. There was overwhelming demand from party karyakartas for nomination. Nearly 820 of them had demanded a party ticket. We tried our best to do justice to them.”

BJP MLC Uma Khapre said her son too has been denied ticket by the party. ”This was as per the decision of the party’s central leadership which had two days back announced that children of MPs and legislatures will not get party tickets. I accept the party decision,” she said.

On the other hand, BJP MLC Amit Gorkhe’s mother, Anuradha Gorkhe has been given the nomination from Shahunagar-Morwadi prabhag. Khapre said Anuradha Gorkhe is a former corporator, so she was renominated.
Other bigwigs who have been denied tickets by BJP include former corporators Keshav Gholve, who was the deputy, Asha Shendge and Karuna Chinchwade.