The Pune Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Girish Bapat, has now become the bone of contention between Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) stakeholders.
The Pune Lok Sabha seat was considered a bastion of the Congress till 2014.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and leader of Opposition in the state assembly Ajit Pawar recently expressed his desire that this Lok Sabha seat should be contested by the NCP as the Congress has lost this seat consecutively in the past two elections.
“I was thinking that the bypoll for Pune Lok Sabha seat will not take place considering the general elections are a year from now. However, there is a possibility of bypoll for the seat that got vacated due to death of sitting BJP MP Girish Bapat," Pawar said in Pune.
“We have 40 corporators in the municipal corporation, while our ally has 10. In addition, we have two MLAs in the city. As per my opinion, the party showing greater strength should be given the opportunity [to contest]. The previous elections of local bodies and assembly elections show that we have greater strength."
CONG SPEAKS
Although Pune Congress leaders didn’t react to Pawar’s statement, senior Congress leader and former minister Vijay Wadettiwar said, “The Congress has been contesting the seat for years and this time, too, it will remain with the party."
Pune district has four Lok Sabha seats — Pune, Baramati, Shirur and Maval constituency. According to the old seat-sharing formula between the Congress and NCP (before the MVA came into existence), except Pune, the remaining three seats are with the NCP.
SHIV SENA UBT’s STANCE
Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut also tweeted and reacted on this issue. According to Raut, “Like Kasba Peth bypoll, Pune can also be conquered by the MVA. There shouldn’t be fighting to increase the number of seats in alliance. Winnability should be considered and we all have to sacrifice a little to save the Constitution and democracy."
Raut has indicated that the Shiv Sena UBT backs Pawar and NCP considering winnability.
While speaking with News18, Raut said, “In the first round for the Lok Sabha seat-sharing for the MVA, we will discuss the seats which are with the BJP as of now. Later, we will discuss the seats which are with all stakeholders of the MVA. The seats that our alliance partners are winning won’t be discussed, but the seats the alliance partners are losing will certainly be discussed. The NCP is winning the Shirur Lok Sabha seat, so although the Shiv Sena is contesting it, we won’t discuss it. Same goes for Maval, which is a traditional seat of the Shiv Sena and we are winning consecutively. Although the party split recently, we have a good candidate for the seat."
Maval was the seat from where Pawar’s son Parth had contested the last Lok Sabha elections and was defeated by Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne. Although Barne is no more with the Uddhav Thackeray faction, Raut has claimed that his party has another good candidate for this seat.
After the split in the Shiv Sena, the scenario in the MVA has also changed. The NCP has become the number one party and the Shiv Sena has become number two. In such a situation, the Congress, which is at number three in the MVA, is trying hard to ride on the recent Kasaba Peth bypoll and Karnataka state assembly wins to keep their traditional Lok Sabha seats from the alliance partners.
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