Pune: Wadgaon Sheri, an assembly constituency formed in 2009, is currently the centre of political attention as an internal power struggle and years-old rivalry have forced Mahayuti to tread cautiously before announcing candidature.
The incumbent MLA Sunil Tingre from Ajit Pawar's NCP, who claimed to have procured forms A and B (for nomination), failed to make it to the party's first list of 38 candidates declared on Wednesday.
"We will continue doing our groundwork. The list is being announced in phases, and there is no need to worry about my candidature. I am determined, and in my tenure as an MLA, I brought in maximum funds to our constituency. I will fight stronger this time," a confident Tingre, whose name cropped up in the Porsche Taycan crash case, said.
The absence of Tingre's name on the list has revived chances for Jagdish Mulik, a former BJP MLA, who is battling an internal squabble to receive a ticket. Mulik was defeated by Tingre in 2019, and despite BJP and NCP being in Mahayuti, their rivalry is still visible on the ground with both candidates openly expressing their opinions against each other.
The name of Mulik, too, was conspicously missing from BJP's first list announced on Sunday. "We will fight, and we will win. The party believes in me, and soon an announcement will be made. The full BJP list is yet to be out. We are hoping that the second list will have the desired name for Wadgaon Sheri," he said.
Interestingly, the fist lists declared by chief minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Tuesday and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday have no mention of Wadgaon Sheri.
Meanwhile, veteran politician Bapu Pathare, who is optimistic about securing a nomination from NCP (SCP), is playing a wait-and-watch game until party chief Sharad Pawar makes his candidature official.
Pathare said, "It is only a matter of formal announcement. There are no two ways about my candidature. We have started our preparations in full swing, and our focus is on the development of our constituency and resolving issues of citizens which have been neglected for the last 10 years."
Last month, Pathare, who previously aligned with BJP, returned to senior Pawar's party. Pathare represented the seat as an NCP (undivided) MLA from 2009 to 2014 prior to joining BJP in 2019 blaming internal party conflicts. However, the saffron party chose Mulik over Pathare for the constituency that year.