The Pune Municipal Corporation elections, occurring after an eight-year hiatus, have stirred up intense competition, not only between opposing parties but also within them. At the Sahakarnagar Regional Office, a Shiv Sena (Shinde) candidate reportedly grabbed and ingested a fellow party member’s ‘AB’ form to eliminate internal competition. The final nomination deadline was on December 30, leading to chaos as the ruling Mahayuti alliance (BJP and Shiv Sena-Shinde) struggled to finalize seat-sharing due to a surge in aspirants.
In Ward No. 36 (Sahakarnagar-Padmavati), a Shiv Sena candidate, initially Machhindra Dhawale, faced a challenge when Uddhav Kamble was issued another ‘AB’ form, declaring him the official candidate. Amidst this, Kamble allegedly took drastic measures by snatching and swallowing Dhawale’s ‘AB’ form during the scrutiny process. An Assistant Returning Officer filed a complaint against Kamble for obstructing government work, leading to police action and his subsequent custody.
The confusion extended beyond Shiv Sena to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with both NCP factions in Pune entangled in a seat-sharing dispute despite a pre-poll alliance. Initially agreeing on a 125:40 seat-sharing formula, NCP (Ajit Pawar) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) faced discrepancies in the distribution of ‘AB’ forms. This resulted in a situation where both factions issued forms for the same seat or a single faction provided forms to two candidates for one ward, causing delays in releasing an official list of candidates.
Despite claims by leaders that they adhered to the agreed formula, the excessive number of nominations filed surpassing the allotted quotas has left the alliance in a state of administrative disarray.
