Dharmadhikari however was quick to point out that he had never demanded a ticket from the BJP. `` I only declared my intentions to join active politics,'' he said. The Dharmadhikari Mitra Parivar also plans to contest four of the six Assembly constituencies namely Shivajingar, Parvati, Pune Cantonment, and Kasaba Peth. The list of candidates will be declared on August 21. Dharmadhikari also did not rule out the possibility of contesting the Shivajinagar seat for the Vidhan Sabha elections. The contesting candidates however may receive different symbols since they would primarily be contesting independently. Dharmadhikari however ruled out the possibility of floating a party at this juncture on the grounds that the scope of their work was quite limited. `` We would first like to make our presence felt in Pune and then Maharashtra before moving onto such ambitious ventures,'' he said. But he was confident that half the battle would be won if he managed to persuade the educated voter to come to them on September11.

Dharmadhikari will file his nomination papers on August 21. Known for his struggle against corruption, some of the issues on his agenda include rooting out corruption, scrapping Article 370 and the Official Secrets Act. He also plans to clean up the Pune civic administration, especially the Pune Municipal Corporation, improve slums and has promised to solve the unemployment problem in Pune and set up the country's first electronic university here. A meeting of his supporters has been slated for August 19 to chalk out the strategy for the election campaign.