Pune: The Pune Lok Sabha BJP candidate, Murlidhar Mohol, along with party workers and office-bearers, is campaigning far and wide in the city. However, the Congress candidate, Ravindra Dhangekar, is facing internal differences in the party while the picture in the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the city is also not very encouraging. This has been affecting Dhangekar’s campaign.
It has become a daily headache for Dhangekar while attending to party infighting. Initially, some city Congress leaders were unhappy with Dhangekar’s candidature. Then there was open discontent shown by a group of Congress workers and office-bearers in the MVA workers’ meeting and now some are fighting over party posts.
It indicates that the Congress has to do a tightrope walk in this election. Their candidate is fed up with these issues.
In a meeting recently at Congress Bhavan, it was resolved that they would work unitedly to elect Dhangekar. However, soon infighting started in the party.
Right in the middle of the campaign for the Lok Sabha poll, Congress OBC Cell City President Prashant Surse was removed on the recommendation of the city- and state-level leadership. Pradip Pardeshi replaced him.
The Surse camp directly contacted All-India Congress OBC Section General Secretary Rahul Yadav in Delhi. Yadav immediately issued an order and re-instated Surse to the post. However, this intensified the infighting.
In the city MVA too, there are disputes. The Shiv Sena (UBT), in an alliance workers’ and office-bearers’ meeting, demanded that they would support Dhangekar, only if the Kasba Peth assembly seat would be given to them.
Recently, a Congress office-bearer, in a meeting at Kesariwada, questioned the Tilak family’s decision to bestow the Tilak Award on PM Narendra Modi. He refused to share dais with the Tilaks.
Later, a mandap contractor was beaten for not displaying a local leader’s photo on the banner.
A senior leader of Shiv Sena (UBT) instructed their workers not to campaign for Dhangekar a couple of days ago. However, the party’s city unit chief clarified later that they were participating in Dhangekar’s campaign.