Pune Municipal Corporation elections: Alliance talks between Sharad Pawar-Ajit Pawar factions fail (file photo)
Digital Desk, Pune. Talks between Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, both factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to contest the Pune Municipal Corporation elections together failed on Friday. According to sources, Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar could not agree on seat sharing, following which the Sharad Pawar faction switched back to Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Quoting sources, it is reported that in the meeting held in Pune around noon, Ajit Pawar faction offered Sharad Pawar faction to contest only 35 seats, that too on 'Ghari' election symbol. Sharad Pawar faction rejected this proposal outright and walked out of the meeting. After this, Sharad Pawar faction started intense discussions with Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress.
Bapusaheb Pathare and Ankush Kakade from Sharad Pawar faction, Arvind Shinde and Ramesh Bagwe from Congress and Vasant More from Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) attended the MVA meeting in a hotel in Pune.
Another meeting of Mahayuti is going to be held tonight
On the other hand, there is a deadlock over seat sharing in the ruling Mahayuti alliance also. Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and BJP have not agreed on 17 seats, although an agreement has been reached on 210 seats in the meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Another meeting of Mahayuti is going to be held tonight.
In the context of BMC elections, senior NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Jayant Patil met Uddhav Thackeray. The meeting held at 'Matoshree' in Bandra lasted for about two hours, in which the possible alliance between the two parties was discussed.
The meeting came two days after Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj Thackeray (MNS) announced the alliance. With the last date of nomination approaching, alliance efforts among all the parties have intensified.
Elections are to be held on 165 seats of Pune Municipal Corporation on January 15, due to which political activity is at its peak. This failure can create new equations in the politics of Maharashtra.