PMC, PCMC poll results: Among BJP’s winners, 38 ‘imports’

The party managed to attract sitting corporators from NCP, MNS and Congress.

IN the run-up to the high-stakes battle for the Pune Municipal Corporation and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, political parties had embarked on a mission of sorts to “import” senior leaders from other parties. Even after it attracted some negative publicity over it, the BJP kept at this “mission”. Opposition parties had often taunted the BJP on this issue, saying its “import business was doing well” In the PMC, the BJP managed to get 13 such leaders elected to the civic body in its tally of 98 corporators. In the PCMC, as many as 25 “imports” of the BJP won.

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The BJP had entrusted Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kakade with the task of roping in probable candidates. The party managed to attract sitting corporators from the MNS, NCP and Congress to the fold. Of the many ‘imported’ candidates, the BJP has got 13 elected to the PMC, while the NCP and the Shiv Sena each got one ‘imported’ candidate elected.

Winning candidates who had defected to the BJP from other parties include former MNS leaders Prakash Dhore and Raju Laygude, former NCP leaders Bapu Karne, Anil Tingre and Rupali Dinesh Dhawade, wife of former NCP corporator Dinesh Dhawade. Former Congress leaders such as Sheetal Sawant, Sunita Galande, Mangala Mantri, Shankar Pawar, Prasanna Jagtap and Haridas Charvad fought, and won, on BJP tickets this time.

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The BJP had also inducted Reshma Bhosale, wife of NCP MLC Anil Bhosale, in the party, but due to a last-minute error, she had to contest as an Independent candidate. The BJP campaigned for her as a sponsored candidate. Sitting RPI(A) corporator Siddarth Dhende was elected as a BJP member, after the city unit of the RPI(A) decided to contest the election on the BJP’s symbol after the pre-poll alliance.

Priya Gadade, who was elected on a MNS ticket in 2012, contested on a NCP ticket this time and was re-elected to the civic body, while former RPI corporator Avinash Salve won the election as a Shiv Sena candidate.

The Congress had supported Ravindra Dhangekar, who had to contest as an Independent candidate after he failed to submit a party letter before the deadline for filing nominations. He won by defeating BJP leader Ganesh Bidkar. Incidentally, the BJP wanted to induct Dhangekar in the party, but the move was opposed by both Bidkar and Guardian Minister Girish Bapat.

In Pimpri-Chinchwad, at least seven sitting corporators who were “imported” from the NCP by BJP have won. In fact, one of them, Shatrughan Kate, has won with a record margin of over 5,000 votes from Pimple Saudagar-Rahatni area. In the 2012 polls, he had won by a large margin. Kate has been a strong supporter of BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Laxman Jagtap.

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Sitting corporator Nitin Landge, who shifted to the BJP from the NCP on the eve of elections, won from Bhosari area for the second time. Others who have switched loyalties to the BJP include Nitin Kalje who won from Charholi, Rahul Jadhav from Moshi and Chadrakant Nakhate from Rahatni.

Among the women candidates, Seema Savale and Asha Shendge were sacked from Shiv Sena two years ago, and they have been with the BJP since then. Similarly, NCP leader and former mayor Mai Dhore had joined the BJP two years ago, and she again won from Sangvi. Maya Barne and Zamabai Barne, who had been with the NCP, won from Thergaon on BJP tickets.

Former Congress leader Jayshree Gawade, who was roped in by the BJP, won from Chinchwad. And former NCP leader Sangeeta Bhondve, who joined the BJP, won from Ravet.

BJP general secretary Sarang Kamtekar said only four of the “imported” candidates lost while 25 had won. “Two or three candidates such as Seema Savale, Asha Shendge and Mai Dhore had joined the BJP much before the civic elections. They are not actually imports,” he said.

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BJP leaders said besides the 12 sitting corporators, at least 10-15 leaders had joined the party, and all of them had won. “In all, 25 imports have won,” said Kamtekar.

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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