Playing old games: Jagtap, Lande shun NCP

Close associates say like Jagtap, Lande is also keeping his options open.

Vilas Lande (left) and Laxman Jagtap (right).

Though it was widely believed that sitting Chinchwad MLA Laxman Jagtap would join NCP on Monday, it did not happen. Similarly, rumours were rife about Bhosari Vilas Lande too joining the NCP, but he too did not do so. Eight independent MLAs, though, joined the NCP in Mumbai on Monday.

When contacted, Jagtap said he was not invited to join the party. “I was not invited,” he said. When asked whether he would join the party if invited, Jagtap said they (NCP leaders) have to first invite him. “If I join the NCP, what reason do I give to PWP which had supported me during Lok Sabha elections?,” he said, refusing to strongly state that he would finally join NCP.

In the last elections, Jagtap had contested as an Independent from Chinchwad seat. As per the seat-sharing arrangement between Congress and the NCP, the Chinchwad seat was of Congress. As a result, Jagtap, an NCP leader, had to contest as an Independent. He won the seat, defeating Shrirang Barne of Shiv Sena.

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NCP leaders said actually Jagtap himself did not turn up to join the party. A senior NCP leader said Jagtap is in a state of confusion whether to join the NCP or not. “He is waiting as to check who the Shiv Sena candidate will be from Chinchwad. He is playing the waiting game like he did during the Lok Sabha elections.”

Like Jagtap who looks confused, Vilas Lande also seem to be confused as whether to join NCP or not. However, close associates said, like Jagtap, Lande is also keeping his options open, looking for the ideal scenario. The reason: His son-in-law Mahesh Lande has already been campaigning in Bhosari and has generated so much support that Lande finds himself isolated in a constituency he nurtured for 10 years.

Landge has already said he would not withdraw from the race, come what may. There have been murmurs of Mahesh Lande getting support of Sena MP Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil. The Adhalrao camp has however rubbished any such theory. “If NCP shows inclination towards Mahesh Lande, then Vilas Lande will join the Sena,” said a close aide.

Lande has been all over Bhosari in last two to three days holding, functions, competitions and meetings. Currently, he is the standing committee chairman and succeeded in getting approvals to several projects in Bhosari area before poll code was announced.

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The Adhalrao camp is known to support Sena corporator Sulbha Ubale who is getting ready to test her luck again. Ubale was defeated by Lande in the 2009 elections. She is considered as the only strong Sena candidate in Bhosari constituency though her rivals in the party are trying to sabotage her bid to get the ticket.

The Sena has problem of fielding candidate in Chinchwad constituency. It does not have a strong candidate to take on the challenge of Jagtap. Bhausaheb Bhoir, who resigned as Congress Pimpri-Chinchwad president, is covertly seeking Sena ticket.

However, the Sena does not seem keen to give him the ticket. Sena Pimpri-Chinchwad Chief Bhagwan Walherkar is another one aspiring for ticket, but party leaders said his name is also not high on Sena’s agenda.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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