Pune LS seat: Congress hopes to recreate Kasba magic; BJP confident of third term

After witnessing extensive campaigns from candidates for a month and a half, Pune is set to go to polls on Monday with both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress hoping to register victory.

Thrilled after the knockout win of the Congress candidate Ravindra Dhangekar in the Kasba Peth assembly by-elections in March 2023, the Congress has attempted to cash in on the goodwill and hope that its candidate will repeat the same performance.

The BJP on its part is banking on some of the big-ticket projects either undertaken during the past few years or slated to be launched in the coming year.

The saffron party also has an advantage in the campaign as it announced Murlidhar Mohol’s name more than 60 days ago.

The Pune parliamentary seat has mostly been held in the past by Congress. In 1999, the BJP’s Pradip Rawat defeated Mohan Joshi of the Congress. Later Suresh Kalmadi of Congress wrested back the seat from BJP in 2004 and retained the hold after the 2009 polls.

After 2014, the BJP, however, tightened its grip over the constituency with back-to-back wins with a margin of more than 3 lakh votes.

This time due to the death of veteran leader and MP Girish Bapat, BJP fielded Mohol, former mayor of Pune and a Maratha face.

Vasant More of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is also in the fray, although Prakash Ambedkar’s party has not been able to create any buzz this time.

Pune Lok Sabha constituency is an urban constituency having dominant communities like Maratha, Brahmin, Scheduled Castes, and Muslims. The seat comprises six assembly constituencies - Kothrud, Kasba Peth, Shivajinagar, Wadgaonsheri, Pune Cantonment and Parvati. Out of the six, the BJP has MLAs in four assembly constituencies, while the Congress and NCP hold one each.

During the campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Nana Patole and MNS supremo Raj Thackeray conducted rallies for their respective candidates in the last one and a half months.

By announcing its candidate early, BJP took the lead over Congress as the latter also faced internal opposition for the candidature of Ravindra Dhangekar, an OBC.

However, the congress managed to put its act in order as the campaign reached midway.

After the Kasba Peth bypoll outcome, many in Congress feel that defeating the saffron party is possible - provided they fight the polls united. One of the reasons BJP had lost the Kasba assembly Bypoll despite the constituency being its stronghold, was resentment among Brahmins as the party did not consider candidates from the community.

Considering this previous experience, this time, ahead of the Lok Sabha poll, BJP nominated former MLA from Kothrud Medha Kulkarni to Rajya Sabha and set the stage for Murlidhar Mohol.

On its part, the BJP is trying to fight the election on its developmental work like the Metro, flyovers, river rejuvenation, riverfront development, and proposed ring road. However, Congress is targeting BJP over delays in projects, increased crime, traffic, new airport delays and many other issues.

“People of Pune have decided to vote for Mahayuti and I am sure that all the records of previous leads in Pune will be history and I will win by a huge margin based on BJP’s performance of development work in the past,” Mohol said.

Dhangekar however has said there has been no development of the city during the past five years. “They cannot name even a single big project brought in the past five years. Projects like Smart City also hoodwinked citizens of Pune,” Dhangekar claimed.

Amogh Wagh, a resident of Shivajinagar said, “ PM Modi ji has sanctioned and timely completed many developmental projects for Pune. But even after that, growing traffic is a major concern amongst Punekars.’