In a major setback to the Congress in Pune ahead of the upcoming civic polls, two of its former corporators, Sadanand Shetty, the general secretary of its state unit, and his wife Sujata Shetty, joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday. The Shettys were with the NCP in the past but quit and joined the Congress 10 years ago. While Sadananad was a Pune corporator for 18 years and held the position of the standing committee chairperson for a year, Sujata was a corporator for 10 years. “To continue working in public interest, especially for those living in slums, it is necessary to make decisions to achieve the goal of a slum-free Pune. Therefore, my wife and I are rejoining the NCP,” Sadanand said. Sadananad’s elder brother, Jaya Shetty, and sister, Devki Shetty, were also corporators in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). They represented Kasba Peth, the Kamla Nehru hospital area in Mangalwar Peth, and the KEM hospital area in Rasta Peth. The Shettys’ return to the NCP comes shortly after Jalinder Kamthe, the party vice-president and in charge of western Maharashtra, rejoined the Ajit Pawar-led faction along with his wife. Kamthe, a former president of the Pune Zila Parishad, is a prominent figure in rural Pune. He had left the NCP three years ago to join the BJP, hoping to contest the 2024 Assembly elections from Purandar constituency. But the seat was allocated to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena under the seat-sharing arrangement. The development also comes at a time when Pawar has shifted his focus to the PMC and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in an effort to reassert his party’s influence over both civic bodies. The NCP held power in both civic bodies until 2017, after which it lost to the BJP. Since 2022, no civic elections have been held in Maharashtra due to a legal challenge to political reservation in the Supreme Court. However, the apex court has now directed that elections must be conducted by January next year. Pawar has been visiting the houses of party cadres to revive the NCP in Pune. On Friday, he visited the houses of leaders and cadres in Khadakwasla Assembly constituency and addressed a party rally.
