Ajit Pawar’s NCP Faces Sharad Pawar’s NCP In Hadapsar And Wadgaon Sheri; No Factional Battles In Six Other Pune Constituencies
Pune, 26th October 2024: After the split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) last year, Maharashtra will go through its first Legislative Assembly elections. In Pune, the constituencies of Wadgaon Sheri and Hadapsar will witness a direct battle between both NCP factions. However, in the remaining six seats, an NCP vs NCP scenario is less likely, and neither of the two Shiv Sena factions is expected to go head-to-head in Pune.
In the remaining constituencies of Kasba Peth, Shivajinagar, Parvati, Pune Cantonment, Kothrud, and Khadakwasla, the Mahayuti and Mahavikas Aghadi have yet to announce candidates for all seats. However, no seats are expected to go to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP or the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, both from the Mahayuti alliance, making these constituencies free of faction vs. faction contests in Pune City for the upcoming elections.
From Hadapsar, Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s sitting MLA Chetan Tupe is contesting the elections, while Sharad Pawar-led NCP has given the ticket to Prashant Jagtap, the current Pune City President of his faction. In Wadgaon Sheri, sitting MLA Sunil Tingre is contesting from Ajit Pawar-led NCP, while NCP (SP) has placed its trust in Bapu Pathare. Although Sunil Tingre’s nomination has raised eyebrows, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not giving a ticket to former MLA Jagdish Mulik might backfire, the two NCP factions will go head to head in these two Pune constituencies.
Meanwhile, from the Mahayuti alliance, sitting MLAs Chandrakant Patil for Kothrud, Madhuri Misal for Parvati, and Siddharth Shirole for Shivajinagar have been announced, but the Mahavikas Aghadi has not yet named any candidates. In Kasba, the Mahavikas Aghadi has announced the candidature of sitting MLA Ravindra Dhangekar, but the Mahayuti, particularly the BJP, which has a stronghold in the constituency, has not announced its candidate. Neither alliance has announced candidates for Pune Cantonment and Khadakwasla.
