Voters will seal the fate of 137 candidates in the eight assembly constituencies that have four sitting legislators re-trying their luck in the first polls after delimitation of constituencies. There are also 13 corporators of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) who are trying to graduate to the state politics. The election will also decide the extent of domination of each party in the newly-carved constituencies.
In 2004, the Congress won three seats while the NCP, Shiv Sena and BJP managed to bag one seat each in the total six assembly seats. After the delimitation process, the city has got two more assembly constituencies taking the total number of seats to eight.
Now, the Congress has fielded two of its sitting legislators Balasaheb Shivarkar and Ramesh Bagwe and dropped Chandrakant Chhajed to make way for former Sena legislator Vinayak Nimhan, a close aide of Narayan Rane. The NCP also rested its lone sitting legislator Kamal Dhole-Patil and instead gave ticket to former MP Anna Joshi.
Of the four seats, each being contested by both party from saffron combine, the BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Girish Bapat in the bastion Kasba Peth while Shiv Sena has opted for two former deputy mayors of PMC in its list of all fresh four faces.
In the ring for the first time, the MNS has fielded Ravindra Dhangekar from Kasba, Kiisshor Shinde from Kothrud and Vasant More from Hadapsar constituency. Two corporators Deepak Mankar and Ujjwal Keskar are also in the fray as Independents from Kothrud constituency.
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