Battlelines have been drawn for the electoral fight in eight Assembly seats in Pune city after several rebel candidates withdrew their nominations on Monday, paving the way for a direct tussle between candidates of the major political parties. The most-watched contest in the city will take place in Kothrud Assembly seat, a saffron stronghold where state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil will contest against MNS candidate Kishore Shinde, who is being tacitly supported by the Congress and the NCP. While the BJP had won the seat with a large margin in the 2014 Assembly elections, when all the main parties had fought the election separately, the opposition parties have fielded only one candidate this time to avoid division of votes. In Parvati Assembly seat, where both BJP and NCP have fielded strong women candidates, sitting BJP legislator and party’s city unit chief Madhuri Misal will fight it out with NCP candidate Ashwini Kadam. Senior Congress leader Ulhas Bagul, who had rebelled against the party and filed his nomination, withdrew his papers on Monday to make it a direct fight between Misal and Kadam. The Kasba Assembly seat will see a direct fight between BJP candidate and city mayor Mukta Tilak and Arvind Shinde of Congress, but Shiv Sena rebel Vishal Dhanavade is likely to cause some trouble for the BJP here. Rebel Congress leader Kamal Vyavhare, who had also filed nomination, withdrew it on Monday. The Hadapsar seat is likely to witness a triangular contest, as sitting BJP legislator Yogesh Tilekar will contest against city NCP chief Chetan Tupe and MNS candidate Vasant More. Much to the relief of the BJP, rebel Shiv Sena candidate Gangadhar Badhe has withdrawn from the fray and avoided division of votes of the saffron combine. In Pune Cantonment seat, several rebels across party lines — Sadanand Shetty of Congress, Bharat Vairage of BJP and Palavi Jawale of Shiv Sena — withdrew their nominations to make it a direct fight between city Congress chief Ramesh Bagawe and BJP candidate Sunil Kamble, brother of sitting BJP legislator Dilip Kamble. Another Congress versus BJP electoral fight will take place in Shivajinagar, where BJP candidate Siddarth Shirole, son of former city MP Anil Shirole, will take on Datta Bahirat of Congress. The BJP will go up against NCP in Vadgaonsheri, where sitting legislator Jagdish Mulik is fighting against NCP candidate Sunil Tingre. A rebel leader, Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Bhosale, has backed out of the contest. The two parties will face off again in Khadakwasla seat, where sitting BJP legislator Bhimrao Tapkir will take on NCP candidate Sachin Dodke. Much like Vadgaonsheri, Shiv Sena rebel leader Ramesh Konde has withdrawn his nomination in this seat. However, the presence of leaders of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Aam Aadmi Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is likely to alter the electoral outcomes in a few seats.
