Over two-and-half years after the civic polls, the city units of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress today joined hands to share power at the Pune Municipal Corporation. This ended the stalemate between the two parties which are in alliance at the state and national level.

In the first elections held in the PMC after the Assembly polls today, Kiran Bartakke of the Congress and Usha Kalamkar of the NCP have been elected as the chairpersons of City Improvement Committee and Legal Committee respectively. Both the posts were lying vacant since the Shiv Sena and the BJP severed ties with the NCP in the PMC ahead of the polls, effectively ending the two-year-old Pune Pattern.

Sena leaders Chandrakant Mokate and Deepak Gawade had resigned from the posts of deputy mayor and chairperson of CIC while Shivram Mengde and Mahesh Ladkat of BJP had given up their respective posts.

The election for both the posts saw the Congress and NCP members voting in favour of each other’s candidate that led to the defeat of Shiv Sena-BJP candidates. MNS corporators, however, abstained from voting. “The Congress and NCP believe in same principles and are also alliance at the national and state level. The alliance at the civic body will help in pushing development work for the city,” said Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale. The NCP never compromised with its principles despite joining hands with the Sena and BJP, she said.

Congress leader Ulhas Bagul said, “It is the natural alliance of Congress and NCP that has come into existence against the unnatural alliance of the NCP with the saffron combine.”

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