Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers from Pune's Vadgaon Sheri Assembly constituency have written a letter to Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) member Pankaja Munde, refusing to campaign for Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) incumbent MLA Sunil Tingre if he is given the ticket to contest the upcoming polls on behalf of the Mahayuti. The saffron party has assigned Munde to oversee three Assembly seats within the Pune Lok Sabha constituency, which includes the Vadgaon Sheri Assembly seat.
In a letter, Arjun Jagtap, president of BJP's Vadgaon Sheri Assembly segment, wrote, "All local BJP leaders and workers wish that someone from our party gets to contest from Vadgaon Sheri in the 2024 Assembly polls. Former MLA Jagdish Mulik has played an important role in expanding BJP and its ideology in Vadgaon Sheri. From one corporator before 2014, Mulik got 14 corporators elected during his tenure."
"Vadgaon Sheri has around 4.70 lakh voters, which includes people from all religions. Recently, many people from outside Maharashtra have settled here. Most of these voters have an ideology akin to the BJP, and this is a positive thing for the party," the letter read.
Jagtap further accused Tingre of working against Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol, who was Mahayuti's candidate for the Pune Lok Sabha seat. "It was only because of the BJP that Mohol got a lead of 15,600 votes from Vadgaon Sheri. If Tingre had followed the alliance principle, Mohol would have got a bigger lead," he said.
"Hence, if the Vadgaon Sheri Assembly seat goes to the NCP in seat-sharing, then the BJP workers will not campaign for the candidate in any form," the letter concluded.
Meanwhile, Mulik has also publicly targeted NCP on multiple occasions. Last month, ahead of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's visit to Vadgaon Sheri to lay the foundation stones for development works worth ₹300 crore, Tingre put up posters featuring only his party chief's pictures; photos of Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis were notably absent. Subsequently, Mulik slammed Tingre, expressing his displeasure and questioning whether only the BJP and Shiv Sena are expected to adhere to the alliance's principles.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Mulik wrote, "Should only the BJP and Shiv Sena follow the principle of alliance in Vadgaon Sheri Legislative Assembly? It is the responsibility of each component party in the Mahayuti to follow the principle of the alliance, but the MLA of Vadgaon Sheri has forgotten this."
This tug-of-war between the BJP and the NCP is not limited to Vadgaon Sheri. In the Maval Assembly constituency too, BJP workers have threatened to revolt if incumbent NCP MLA Sunil Shelke is given the ticket to contest in the polls. They recently passed a resolution not to campaign for Shelke if he gets the ticket.
