NCP ties up with Sena, gets Pune Mayor post

NCP leader Ajit Pawar made light of his party’s alliance with the Shiv Sena as a Pune-specific arrangement, having no political implications at the state or national level, though he was quick to add that NCP’s support will decide who the next MP of Pune will be. “It is only for the development of the city that the NCP and Sena have come together. In case of sensitive issues, we will discuss and reach an understanding amongst ourselves,” he said, adding that the secular NCP will not go the saffron way.

Reiterating that the NCP was not in favour of breaking the natural alliance with Congress, Pawar said the blame lay squarely with the local Congress leadership. “Had the alliance policy at the national level been implemented in Pune, there would not have been any bitterness. Even while facing defeat in the elections, the Congress was not willing to hold talks with the NCP. How could we tell the citizens that we will not be ruling the PMC and instead sitting in the opposition as the Congress was not supporting us,” he said.

NCP candidate Rajlaxmi Bhosale was declared Mayor, receiving 67 votes, including 20 votes from the Shiv Sena and seven from independents. She defeated Shailaja Khedekar of the Congress, who managed 52 votes, including eight each from MNS and independents. The NCP has a strength of 42 corporators against 36 of Congress.

In return, Shiv Sena candidate Chandrakant Mokate was elected the deputy mayor. In a direct fight between Mokate and Avinash Salve, a Congress-Republican Party of India alliance candidate. Mokate received 92 votes against 52 votes of Salve.

The NCP-Sena alliance brought to end the 15-year-old hold of Congress on the Pune Municipal Corporation under the leadership of MP Suresh Kalmadi. The fate of mayoral polls hung in balance till Wednesday evening, till Congress announced a tie-up with MNS, putting the lid on any chance for an alliance between Congress and NCP.