NCP split gives Cong an edge, party wants more seats in Pune dist

Pune: The Congress party has set its eyes on more seats this time for the assembly election from Pune district.
Its leaders have claimed that their alliance partner, the undivided NCP, which would retain the maximum seats in previous elections, is not that strong after the split as most MLAs have sided with Ajit Pawar.
Congress office-bearers claimed they received a good response from aspirants in constituencies like Wadgaon Sheri, Hadapsar and Parvati.These constituencies were with the NCP.
"Earlier, there were few or no aspirants from these three constituencies because they were always held by the undivided NCP in the alliance. But this time, we have a good number of aspirants. If NCP (SCP) supports our candidates here like we supported them all these years, we can win these seats," a senior city Congress leader told TOI.
He added that NCP (SCP) has no candidate in many constituencies as leaders sided with deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar after the split. Similarly, in the rural parts, Maval had only one or two aspirants, but the number has increased to 10 this time.
"Of 21 constituencies in the district, the undivided NCP would retain 16, and five were given to Congress in the alliance, including three in the city and two in rural parts. However, we urged our city leadership to get more seats in the alliance this time," the Congress leader added.
Yashomati Thakur, senior Congress leader and MLA from Amravati, interviewed at least 90 aspirants for 19 constituencies in the district on Sunday.
Except for Baramati and Daund, the party had aspirants for each assembly constituency. There was a lone aspirant, Vijay Singh Chaudhary, for Indapur seat too where NCP (SCP) has already announced Harshvardhan Patil's candidature. With 12, Shivajinagar had the highest number of aspirants. Other seats like Pune Cantonment had 11 while Maval, and Pimpri (SC) had 10 aspirants each.
The Congress currently has three MLAs in Pune district, including Bhor, Purandar and Kasba Peth. In Bhor and Purandar, Sangram Thopate and Sanjay Jagtap, both sitting MLAs, were the lone aspirants. In Kasba Peth, where Ravindra Dhangekar won the bypoll election last year, four more were in the race.