Cong divided over fly-overs

A group of party corporators led by a former mayor vehemently opposed the proposal at the meeting. They said the BJP would get political mileage once the project was cleared by the municipal corporation. They felt that the flyovers would strengthen the position of the alliance in the forthcoming assembly elections.

The another group, led by another former mayor, however, maintained that the party should not oppose the proposal as it would send the wrong signal to Puneites. They warned that the alliance partners would make an issue out of it if the party opposed the proposal. This group further warned that the party would be giving its rivals a stick to beat them with.

The meeting finally decided to support the proposal. Several Congress corporators, however, expressed strong resentment over the party’s decision saying that it would be a serious mistake to support the proposal. They said they would prefer to remain absent instead of voting in favour of the proposal.

Meanwhile, the general body is scheduled to take up the issue for the discussion. The proposal is expected to get approval since Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena have supported it.

Meanwhile, the MSRDC sources said they would go ahead with the proposal, which was mainly drafted for Pune metropolitan area even if the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation had rejected it.

The sources, however, made it clear that the MSRDC would not construct any flyover in the PCMC area in view of the rejection.