Pune Festival: Nitin Gadkari, Devendra Fadnavis to share dais with Suresh Kalmadi today

The local BJP unit was in a bind over the event as in the past, it had gone all out against Kalmadi after he faced allegations of financial misappropriation during the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG). Local BJP leaders had been keeping their distance from the Pune Festival because of its association with Kalmadi. The party’s mayors in the last five years have skipped the event despite being invited for its inauguration as the first citizens of the city.

When asked about senior BJP leaders inaugurating the Kalmadi-led Pune Festival, city BJP chief Jagdish Mulik had refused to comment.

A Congress leader had said that Gadkari and Fadnavis inaugurating the Pune Festival must be part of their strategy to take advantage of the platform to promote their ideologies. “It (BJP) has to retain its power in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and also the hold in city politics it had managed to gain in the previous two general elections against the challenge posed by NCP leader Ajit Pawar. Thus, the BJP will try to consolidate its support base by getting involved in functions they were avoiding for long,” he added.