Pimpri-Chinchwad civic election: 35 years later, top guns of state BJP to descend in Pimpri; Sena and NCP to stage protest

Though Rane denied having met Shah, he conceded that he has received an offer from the BJP, but has neither accepted it nor rejected it. A BJP leader said Rane might join the party once the election for the next President is over, as the party does not intend to antagonise its ally Shiv Sena. Pimpri-Chinchwad, once considered a bastion of Sharad Pawar and NCP, has been deliberately chosen as the venue for the executive meeting as the party had captured it with a large margin.

“Winning the PCMC poll was one of the major achievements of the party in the civic elections… the party wanted to celebrate the occasion in its own way,” said a leader. When the Lok Sabha election was held in 2014, the BJP hardly had any presence in Pimpri-Chinchwad. It always had less than 10 corporators and never had an MLA.

However, after Narendra Modi held his first rally three years ago at HA Ground, and it witnessed a record turnout, the BJP’s fortunes began to change. Today, the party has two MLAs from Pimpri-Chinchwad as well as a brute majority in the civic body.

BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Laxman Jagtap said at least 800 party leaders are expected to attend the two-day meet, to be held at the Ramkrishna More auditorium. Jagtap said Fadnavis and Gadkari, among other leaders, will address the meet and highlight the future course of action vis-a-vis the growth of the party in Maharashtra.

“Party chiefs from administrative districts will reveal the party’s progress in their areas,” said BJP general secretary Sarang Kamtekar. On the last time the party’s executive meeting was held in Pimpri-Chinchwad, he said, “PCMC was a council then and the party was smaller. This will be the second executive meet and the biggest one…,” he said.

Meanwhile, other parties, including Shiv Sena and NCP, have decided to stage a hunger strike during the BJP meet to “highlight its failure to keep its promises”.

“Be it on the issue of loan waiver for farmers, regularisation of illegal structures or scrapping the penalty tax, the PM and CM both made promises, but they remain unfulfilled… so, we will stage a hunger strike and hold a demonstration,” said Shiv Sena leader Maruti Bhapkar.

Saying the NCP, MNS, AAP and at least 25 social and voluntary organisations will participate in the protest, Bhapkar claimed that the BJP might try to scuttle their protest. “If the BJP tries that, then there will be a protest on a larger scale,” he said.