To regain lost ground in Pune after Kasba defeat, BJP appoints dedicated in-charges for individual LS, Assembly, PMC seats

The appointments have raised eyebrows in the political circles, even in BJP, as all the three in-charges are aspirants for the respective seats. Mohol is expected to be the favourite among the other aspirants for the Pune seat while Kul’s wife Kanchan Kul had contested against NCP’s Supriya Sule in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, Langde too has expressed his interest to contest the Lok Sabha election.

On his appointment as the in-charge of the Pune Lok Sabha seat, Mohol said, “I will put in all efforts to uphold the confidence shown by the party leadership in me. I have sincerely tried to successfully perform all responsibilities so far entrusted to me by the party. I am confident that BJP will win the forthcoming Lok Sabha election in Pune with a huge margin.”

The BJP has won the two previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019 while its sitting MP died recently leaving the seat vacant. The bypoll is yet to be announced.

In 2014, BJP had won all the eight Assembly seats in Pune and had established its hold on the city’s politics. However, it lost two of the eight seats in 2019 and a few months ago, BJP lost in the Kasba bypoll, considered to be its bastion for the last three decades. With a split in the Shiv Sena, the challenge for BJP in the upcoming assembly election has also increased amid a split in the support base of the former.

The BJP has appointed city BJP chief Jagdish Mulik as the election in-charge of the Vadgaonsheri Assembly seat which he had failed to retain in 2019. He is keen on either contesting the Pune Lok Sabha seat or the Vadgaonsheri Assembly seat in the next elections. Similarly, former legislator Yogesh Tilekar, who had lost in the 2019 election from Hadapsar, has been made the election in-charge of the same seat.

BJP leader Hemant Rasane, who lost in the Kasba bypoll, has been made the election in-charge of the constituency. Meanwhile, the others who have been appointed as the in-charges are Ajinkya Walekar for Pune Cantonment, Jitendra Polekar for Parvati, Sachin More for Khadakwasla, Punit Joshi for Kothrud and Dattabhau Khade for Shivajinagar.

Although the PMC election is awaited after the five-year-term came to an end in March last year, BJP has decided to keep itself ready. In order to ensure that the party is able to retain the civic body, it has appointed Rajesh Pande as the election in-charge of the PMC.

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On being appointed as the election in-charge, Pande said, “The state BJP, on recommendation of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule and guardian minister Chandrakant Patil, has appointed me as the election in-charge of the party for the PMC polls. I will come true to the confidence shown on me. We will repeat the party’s success,” The BJP, for the first time, had won around 100 seats in the 2017 civic body election and came to power single-handedly.