Pune: Former BJP state president Chandrakant Patil’s nomination filing for the assembly polls became a huge event in Pune on Thursday. He is among the top five leaders of the party in the state and will be fighting the election in Pune’s affluent Kothrud area. What became very evident on Thursday was the attempt by the BJP leader to bring together leaders from the Brahmin community as well as Maratha community to exhibit support for him as he took out a procession from Kothrud to Pune district collector’s office to file his nomination.
Huge posters of Union Minister for State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol, who himself belongs to Kothrud and won the last Lok Sabha polls from Pune, as well as the BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Medha Kulkarni, were part of the procession.
One is leader of the Maratha community and the other represents Brahmins, who have a sizeable population in Pune city and especially Kothrud. The BJP is going out of its way to get the caste equations right as that is going to matter a lot in the assembly polls. Thursday’s event just showed how crucial Pune city is in the BJP’s eyes.
In the first candidate list that the BJP released four days ago, in Pune, the party has taken Shivajinagar, Kothrud and Parvati constituencies. Many were surprised that the party did not take the Kasba Peth constituency, which it dominated for over 25 years till the last by-polls, when it suffered a loss against the Congress.
A lot of discussion is believed to be happening about how to deal with Kasba Peth. In the suburbs of Pune, the party has taken Chinchwad and Bhosari seats. In each of the constituencies the BJP is focusing on getting the caste equation correct. Kasba Peth, Kothrud and Parvati are now considered to be the heart of Pune which has a large Brahmin and Maratha population.
Insiders point out how the party was proactive in nominating Medha Kulkarni, the Brahmin face from Pune, as Rajya Sabha member just a few months ago and then giving the Pune Lok Sabha seat to Mohol, who was a wrestler and comes from the Maratha community. In Shivajinagar the party has fielded Siddharth Shirole, son of former party MP Anil Shirole, again a prominent Maratha face.
Apart from getting the caste equation right, the BJP’s focus is on driving the campaign on the issue of development. The expansion of Pune airport with the brand new terminal getting activated just before the model code of conduct for elections got implemented, the new metro running in Pune and expansion of roads and bridges are prominent in every speech of BJP leaders and candidates.
It is interesting to see how Pune, a huge IT hub, auto sector city and education centre is all-important for the BJP. The city, which hosts the Rajiv Gandhi IT Park and countless medium-size IT parks, many multinational company manufacturing plants, auto industry and education sector institutions, is buzzing with young population and cosmopolitan citizens.
The BJP clearly thinks the eight assembly seats here are as important as the seats in Mumbai. The party feels that this young and cosmopolitan population voting for them will send the right signal nationally and this is a voter base that it can count on in the future too.
The other aspect is this happens to be Maha Vikas Aghadi architect Sharad Pawar’s home territory. The BJP thinks victory in majority of the seats in Pune would prove to be a psychological victory for the Mahayuti.
The party is focussing on all aspects of poll strategy in a bid to win maximum of the eight city and suburb seats. The state leadership of the BJP wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold at least two rallies in Pune, one in the heart of the city and another in the rural area of Pune district.
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