No alliance, Congress to fight civic polls in Pune alone

The Congress party on Sunday officially announced that they will contest the upcoming civic elections for Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) alone, without allying with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) or Shiv Sena even as the party is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.

The announcement came from city unit chief Arvind Shinde after a meeting of core committee members a day earlier when most leaders and party workers demanded going solo in the elections.

“The leaders insisted on offering opportunity to Congress workers in all wards during elections. Considering the demand, we have decided to fight the upcoming PMC elections on our own. We have asked all aspirants wanting to contest polls and other workers to start preparing for elections and focus on strengthening the party at ward level,” said Shinde while issuing a release.

Saturday’s meeting was attended by Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Nana Patole. Several leaders expressed that despite alliance in the past Congress has not benefited as leaders did not work for the party. Former minister and senior party leader Vishwajeet Kadam said party should choose its candidate for the upcoming polls carefully and offer tickets to those who have worked for strengthening the organisation in the past.

Congress had only 10 councillors in the 2017 polls while NCP had managed to win 42 and BJP won the elections with 99 seats.

As Maharashtra government has decided to revise the number of corporators in each local body ahead of civic polls, number of elected representatives in Pune Municipal Corporation may once again see a change and go up to 166.

Congress leaders feel that if the party contests polls in alliance as MVA, it may get a raw deal with most seats during sharing formula would go to NCP.