PUNE: The leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress and Shiv Sena have expedited talks to contest the forthcoming Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections together following the decision on reservation of seats for women in civic polls by the state election commission.
The preliminary round of discussion took place recently among leaders of all the three parties in which various formulas on sharing of seats were put forth. However, a final decision on contesting the polls jointly is yet to be taken. Workers of the three parties said they have a common agenda to keep the BJP out of power in the PMC.
“We are still in talks. The MVA has been heading the state for the last two-and-a-half years. The same model can be implemented. The recent discussion ended on a positive note,” said an NCP leader. The Congress sources said that the party was expecting to fight in at least 50 seats, besides those seats which were won in the previous polls. “We cannot compromise on the number of seats,” a Congress functionary said.
BJP had won the 2017 polls with a thumping majority, bagging 98 seats out of 163. Political analysts said that MVA partners will have to show a united front if they want to keep the BJP out of power.
Prashant Jagtap, the NCP’s city unit chief, said, that a proposal to join hands with the Congress and Shiv Sena was yet to be finalised. “The NCP can fight polls alone and emerge as the single largest party. But a final decision will be taken by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar,” he said.
Sanjay More, the head of the city unit of the Shiv Sena, said,“We follow the instructions of our party chief. The party can fight the polls alone. We have the capacity to decide the city’s mayor,” he said.
