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MVA divided over bypoll as Uddhav Sena wants NCP to give way

Shiv Sena claims to have the best candidate for Chinchwad, which has been traditionally contested by the NCP; says will raise the matter at the next MVA meeting.

The Uddhav Sena said it wanted to field a candidate from a seat that has been traditionally contested by its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty/File)
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The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has struck a discordant note in the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) bid to contest the bypolls to Chinchwad Assembly seat even as the Election Commission on Wednesday advanced the polling date in the constituency and Kasba by a day to February 26. The Uddhav Sena said it wanted to field a candidate from a seat that has been traditionally contested by its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

“The MVA is veering towards the view that it should contest both Kasba and Chinchwad seats. Though the ruling parties (Shinde Sena-BJP) are calling for an unopposed election as part of a tradition in Maharashtra (for bypolls), they (BJP) have in the past themselves not followed the tradition,” Uddhav Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said on Wednesday.

The NCP is gearing up to contest the seats. Last week, NCP leader Ajit Pawar made it clear that there was a growing demand from party leaders to contest Chinchwad, from where it has been fielding candidates since 2009. However, now that the Uddhav Sena has laid claim to the seat, it is likely to precipitate a strong reaction within the MVA. “The Congress and the NCP should decide who will contest the Kasba seat. But the Shiv Sena wants to contest the Chinchwad seat. We will put our view during the (next) MVA meeting,” Raut said.

The Uddhav Sena’s claim to the seat is based on the performance of Rahul Kalate who had given a tough fight to the late Laxman Jagtap of the BJP whose death necessitated the bypoll. Kalate was with the undivided Shiv Sena when he contested as a rebel candidate, getting support from both the NCP and the Congress.

Kalate confirmed that the Uddhav Sena was trying to field him from Chinchwad. “Yes, I got a call from party leaders enquiring whether I’m ready to contest the Chinchwad seat. I told them I’m ready to do so,” he told The Indian Express on Wednesday.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, Kalate secured 65,000 votes. In the 2019 Assembly polls, his votes doubled, as he secured 1,28,000 votes. Though he lost to Jagtap, who had notched up 1,48,000 votes, Kalate gave enough jitters to the BJP.

Meanwhile, the BJP is searching for an able candidate. Although the party is giving priority to Jagtap’s family members, the family of the deceased MLA is still undecided on whether to field Laxman’s brother Shankar or his wife Ashwini. “Most probably, the party will go with Ashwini Jagtap, to capture the sympathy from voters as well as the NCP, which has apparently decided not to field a candidate if Jagtap’s wife contests the election,” said a BJP leader.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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  • Maha Vikas Aghadi NCP Political Pulse shiv sena
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