Khushi Maheshwari, Pune
Voices were raised as demands from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to contest all three seats in Pimpri Chinchwad persisted. The chief of NCP, Ajit Pawar, called a meeting of all the senior leaders of the party in Baramati to discuss the matter further.
The onus of the meeting fell on the same demand – to contest all three seats in the constituency. Party members believe that after the tragic passing away of MLA Laxman Jagtap, who contested the Chinchwad seat for three years in continuation, odds are in NCP’s favour and hence they should contest a seat there particularly.
Ajit Pawar tried to neutralise the environment by stating that the final call is in the hands of the top brass of Mahayuti. As per Yogesh Behl, during the meeting in Baramati, demands to contest seats were raised in high spirits to contest all three seats, but NCP chief pacified the tensions saying that the top brass of Mahayuti will decide and that this is yet to happen. The seats are also yet to be allocated.
Prashant Shitole, Nana Kate, Shamim Pathan, Nilesh Doke, Jagdish Shetty, Moreshwar Bhondve, Mayur Kalate and Vinod Nade were some of the leaders who met with Pawar, other than Yogesh Behl. Since the last few weeks, regular discussions have been in place between NCP leaders, wherein they unanimously concluded that all seats need to be contested. And then finally they put their resolution forward to Ajit Pawar.
2 out of 3 seats are currently represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party and one by NCP. While the Bhosari seat is represented by BJP’s Mahesh Landge, the Chinchwad seat was bagged by Ashwini Jagtap, two years back, after her husband passed away. And the Pimpri reserved seat was won by Anna Bansode.
While NCP’s mandate dictates that they want to try for all three seats, BJP is a strong contender for the Pimpri reserved seat and might win due to NCP candidate Bansode’s underperformance. However, some strong NCP leaders like Nana Kate have claimed that they have already begun campaigning for the Chinchwad seats and will continue to do so.