Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena Eyes Hadapsar, Vadgaonsheri, Khadakwasla Assembly Seats In Pune

With only a couple of months left for the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena has staked its claim on three seats in Pune — Hadapsar, Vadgaonsheri and Khadakwasla. Currently, Hadapsar and Vadgaonsheri are held by the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, represented by Chetan Tupe and Sunil Tingre respectively, while BJP's Bhimrao Tapkir is the incumbent MLA in Khadakwasla.

The Shiv Sena's Pune unit has urged the party leadership to contest these three Assembly seats. "We have asked the party leadership that three of the eight Assembly seats in the city should be contested by the party. The Shiv Sena has good strength in the Hadapsar, Vadgaonsheri, and Khadakwasla constituencies, so the party should get these seats in a seat-sharing arrangement," Shinde Sena Pune chief Nana Bhangire told IE. "However, the party will work for the ruling alliance candidate irrespective of who contests as per the seat-sharing arrangement,” he added.

Out of the eight Assembly seats in Pune, six are with the BJP and two with Ajit Pawar's NCP, both of whom are part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance.

On the other hand, there also seems to be a tussle in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) regarding seat-sharing. Vasant More, who contested the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls on a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) ticket in Pune, joined Shiv Sena (UBT) on Tuesday. More is eyeing to contest the upcoming Assembly polls from the Hadapsar constituency. However, the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) has already declared that its city chief, Prashant Jagtap, will contest from the seat.

It will be interesting to see how the Mahayuti and MVA share the seats in Pune as the elections are fast approaching.