Pune: Leaders and aspiring candidates from western Maharashtra are busy lobbying as political parties get ready to announce their lists of candidates. Pune saw aspiring candidates from both factions of the NCP, the BJP as well as the Congress meet their bosses in a last-ditch effort to convince them about their fitment as official candidates for the assembly polls.
The hub of 58 seats of western Maharashtra is Pune where NCP founder Sharad Pawar camped for several days in the first half of October, meeting activists and leaders, while his nephew Ajit Pawar and the BJP state leadership made several visits to the region. The distress among farmers and the caste polarisation over Maratha reservation demand makes the opposition think they may have an advantage in western Maharashtra.
The issues there are mainly related to agricultural distress sugarcane and onion producers have faced in the past couple of years; economic issues such as unemployment and inflations may not be felt as severally by the people of this region as those in underdeveloped regions like Marathwada and Vidarbha. However, the overall economic slowdown and sluggish industrial growth has hit the youth and urban middle class in cities such as Pune, Satara, and Ahmednagar.
Statement Of NCP (SP) MP Amol Kolhe
“We are focussing on how policies of the central government have been wrong as far as onion and sugarcane farmers are concerned and how the onion-producing farmers are in distress. The previous decisions about the export ban and ban on the sale of sugarcane for ethanol had put the farmers in a fix. Those decisions have been revised. However, farmers are still in bad shape,” NCP (SP) MP Amol Kolhe said.
At stake are not just assembly seats from rural areas of Ahmednagar, Pune, Kolhapur, and Satara districts but also urban constituencies of Pune city like Kasba Peth, Kothrud, and Khadakwasla.
Statement Of Kothrud MLA Chandrakant Patil
“We are confident that we will win most of the seats in western Maharashtra as people have seen major infrastructure projects getting completed in cities such as the metro rail project in Pune. We have also worked on creating new roads, bridges, and highspeed trains,” said minister and Kothrud MLA Chandrakant Patil.
The question being discussed among activists and leaders is how the eight seats of Pune city will be divided among alliance partners. On the Mahayuti side, Kothrud, Kasba, Parvati, and Khadakwasla are wanted by the BJP, while Ajit Pawar’s NCP may be given Hadapsar and Cantonment. On the Maha Vikas Aghadi side, the Congress wants Kasba, Cantonment, Parvati, and Hadapsar while the Shiv Sena is insisting on Shivajinagar and Kothrud. Sharad Pawar’s NCP is interested in Hadapsar and Khadakwasla where it has half a dozen interested candidates. In fact, in most of the constituencies, the number of interested candidates is now peaking as days pass. The chances of some of those who are unable to get official candidature of the party contesting as rebels are increasing.
Statement Of Shiv Sena UBT Spokesperson Sanjay Raut
“We are capable of contesting all seats in Pune, which is the biggest centre in western Maharashtra. But we will consider what our alliance partners want. We will make some adjustments but we are keen that we have a solid presence in Pune,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut.
Pune city and suburbs have been flooded with hoardings and posters of aspiring candidates from various sides over the past few weeks. Only after the Model Code of Conduct came into force a couple of days ago, the process of parties removing these posters was seen. Four out of six major political parties, BJP, Congress, NCP (SCP), and NCP may have a ‘problem of plenty’ when it comes to selecting official party candidates and the next logical thing to be seen will be, those rejected by parties, preparing to contest as independent candidates.
