Pune Lok Sabha bypoll: Ajit Pawar stakes claim citing NCP strength in constituency

Among the MVA allies – NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) – it is the Congress which has traditionally contested the Pune Lok Sabha seat and Pawar’s assertion is likely to cause friction in the alliance.

“My opinion is that when the elections are announced, the party which has the most strength in the constituency should get the ticket. Now, how do you determine which party has the most strength? You look at the election results in civic polls, Assembly polls and an analysis will show the comparative strength of the parties. We have several MLAs in this constituency and if you ask Ravindra Dhangekar in private, he will say that NCP helped him greatly to win Kasba,” Pawar said.

The NCP was the second largest party in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) after BJP in the previous civic poll while the Congress did not fare well. The Congress has only one MLA from the city while NCP won two Assembly seats in the previous elections.

Pawar said that while earlier he had said that bypolls may not take place due to the short time left for the general elections, recent developments had changed his mind. “I was of the opinion that since the general elections are only a year away, bypolls for Pune Lok Sabha seat may not take place. But now I have heard from inner circles that preparations are on for the elections to be announced,” Pawar told reporters in Pune after visiting the timber market, where a fire gutted many shops.

Pune NCP chief Prashant Jagtap has openly expressed his wish to contest the Pune Lok Sabha seat while senior party leader Deepak Mankar is also keen on trying his luck. The Congress, on the other hand, has been insisting that it should contest the seat. Congress leaders Mohan Joshi and Ravindra Dhangekar are among the few claimants for the seat.

“Any decision on elections is taken at a higher level. We have already conveyed to the state leaders that the Congress will continue to contest Pune Lok Sabha seat as NCP has been contesting all the remaining Lok Sabha seats in Pune district,” a Congress leader said.

In an indication that the Pune Lok Sabha bypoll may be announced soon, the district election office recently conducted mock polling. The Pune Municipal Corporation had also directed 120 civic officials on election duty to attend the mock poll, saying that those absent will have to face disciplinary action.

Bapat passed away on March 29 this year, with a year to go before his five-year term ended. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2019 after defeating Mohan Joshi of Congress. As per the law, a Lok Sabha seat cannot remain vacant for more than six months.

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There is a lot of interest in a possible Pune Lok Sabha bypoll as the general elections are just a year away and the outcome of the bypoll will set the scene for the 2024 general election. The bypoll will also follow the intense fight in the recently held Kasba Assembly seat bypoll that Congress’s Dhangekar won by defeating BJP’s Hemant Rasane in the BJP bastion. The BJP had won the seat in the previous six elections and made the bypoll a prestige issue to prove its hold on Pune politics. The Kasba bypoll was held following the death of sitting BJP MLA Mukta Tilak.