Tussle among MVA allies on cards for 8 seats in Pune ahead of Maharashtra Assembly polls

The Pune units of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP) have declared the seats they wish to contest.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar participate in a Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) press conference at Shivalaya in Mumbai. (Express Photo)

As seat-sharing discussions for the Maharashtra Assembly polls are set to start within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)—the alliance of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), and Shiv Sena (UBT)—a tussle is likely for the eight Assembly seats in Pune. The local units of all political parties are firm on their choice of seats to be contested in the Assembly elections.

At the recently held rally of Shiv Sena (UBT), party chief Uddhav Thackeray urged the party workers to get active and bring back the party’s past glory in the city. Senior party leaders Sanjay Raut and Sushma Andhare declared their intention to contest four seats —Kothrud, Hadapsar, Vadgaonsheri, and Khadakwasla.

“The Shiv Sena has a strong presence in the city, with many legislators representing it in the state assembly. We have contested many seats in the past and won them, so in this Assembly election, we will repeat that. The party is strong in Kothrud, Hadapsar, Vadgaonsheri, and Khadakwasla,” said Raut. Andhare said the party should contest the four seats at any cost, and the party cadre demanded that they do so.

Earlier, the local Congress leaders also demanded that at least three Assembly seats in the city—Pune Cantonment, Kasba, and Shivajinagar—be contested. However, the party leaders are also insisting on contesting the Kothrud, Parvati, and Hadapsar seats.

The local NCP (SP) is also not far behind and has demanded four of the eight seats in the Assembly elections. “We want to contest Hadapsar, Vadgaon Sheri, Khadakwasla, and Parvati assembly seats. The demand has been put up with the party leadership to take up during the seat-sharing arrangement of MVA,” said city NCP (SP) chief Prashant Jagtap.

“The NCP had won two seats, Hadapsar and Vadgaonsheri, in the previous assembly election while it lost the Khadakwasla seat by a narrow margin. There is no question of his party giving up the seats it won in the previous election,” said Jagtap, who himself is an aspirant from the Hadapsar seat.

Incidentally, both NCP legislators — Chetan Tupe of Hadapsar and Sunil Tingre of Vadgaon Sheri — sided with Ajit Pawar after the split in the NCP in 2023.

Ajay Jadhav

Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read More

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Maharashtra Assembly election