Bucking the statewide trend, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine registered a marked improvement over their 2004 results, bagging four out of eight seats in Pune city. This came even as the MNS factor played a major role in the final outcome of a number of contests — it won a seat and came second in two constituencies. Meanwhile, the Congress-NCP combine, between them, could get only three seats.

In 2004 Assembly elections, when the city had only six seats (before delimitation), Congress had three seats while NCP, Shiv Sena and BJP had one each. The eight city seats also saw a significant amount of rebel activity that bogged down Congress-NCP at least till a week before the elections. What also did not help was seat-sharing arrangement that had many Congress strongholds going the NCP way and vice versa.

The Parvati constituency had been a Congress bastion from 1978, but it went to NCP after seat sharing and former MLA Ramesh Bagwe got shifted to Cantonment. Though Congress had strong candidates like Abhay Chhajed and Aba Bagul, NCP could field only a relatively weak Sachin Taware from there. BJP’s Madhuri Misal managed to win in Parvati.

In Khadakwasla, the Congress-NCP combine failed to gauge the popularity of Ramesh Wanjale as the seat-sharing formula ensured it went to the NCP, it being a part of Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. But looking at the margin that Wanjale won by, Congress leaders might be ruing their decision.

Similarly, the last minute candidatures of Anna Joshi, who was with BJP for four decades, came as a surprise for NCP workers in Kothrud. They didn’t like the idea of fielding imported candidate and it was evident in the campaigning too. Joshi ended up a poor fourth.

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