Pune Politics | Pune: BJP’s single-handed rule will end after Ajit Pawar joins the ruling alliance in state
Pune : Pune Politics | Political equations in the city will change after the NCP split and Ajit Pawar’s entry in the state cabinet. This will be felt more during the state assembly and civic polls. Many incumbent BJP corporators and aspirants will not get tickets in the upcoming elections. The BJP will have to forget about its single-handed rule in the coming civic polls.
The BJP had won in all the eight assembly segments in the city in 2014. Later, it came to power as the majority party in the 2017 civic polls by winning 98 seats. However, it lost two assembly seats in 2019, where the NCP won. In the recent past, the BJP lost its bastion, the Kasba Peth assembly constituency to the Congress candidate in the bypoll. The Kasba Peth result was a warning bell for the BJP.
However, in the recent realignment of political forces, the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP. CM Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar announced that they would fight all forthcoming elections together. Moreover, the RPI (A) is also an alliance partner at the local level too. So, it would expect a few seats.
In the outgoing house, the BJP had 98 seats while the NCP had 42. The Congress and Shiv Sena had 10 seats each. The MNS had two corporators and the MIM had a lone seat.
The BJP had given 10 seats to the RPI (A) and fielded its own candidates on the remaining seats. However, all contestants had fought on the BJP’s party symbol. However, in the upcoming elections, the BJP will have to share more than half of the seats with their alliance partners i.e. Shiv Sena (BT), the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) and the RPI (A). This means, half of the BJP corporators will have to give up their claim even before contesting the polls. The total seats that the BJP will have to share with the allies would be around 82.
Even after coming to power, there would be some old corporators in the NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) who would stake their claims on various office-bearer posts.
The BJP and Ajit Pawar will have a huge responsibility of ensuring wins for candidates from the Shiv Sena (BT) and RPI (A). It all means that the city BJP will have to compromise with less seats in the upcoming civic elections.
Pune Crime News | Pune: Russian couple assaulted in Koregaon Park