After much hype in the run-up to the elections, the Republican-Left Democratic Front (RLDF) or the Third Front failed to impress city voters. Almost all RLDF candidates put up a dismal performance and all of them lost their deposits.

RLDF leaders blamed money and muscle power used by bigger parties, while some of them raised doubts on the foolproof functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) claiming that many of them malfunctioned. Except two Republican Party of India candidates Parshuram Wadekar who secured 15,920 votes in Shivajinagar and Sayyad Afsar who polled 11,381 votes in Wadagaon Sheri, no other RLDF candidate could reach the five-figure mark.

Kiran Moghe of CPM, despite grabbing a lot of media attention, could manage to get only 3,213 votes from Parvati. Despite the fact that the Front had some major planks like inflation in an election that hardly saw any serious issue being raised, it could not attract many voters.

“The victory of Congress-NCP and the combine overcoming anti-incumbency can be attributed to money and muscle power they used in the elections,” alleged Wadekar. “Besides money and muscle power, we suspect EVMs malfunctioned; soon, we are going to register a complaint with the Election Commission,” he said.

CPM Pune district general secretary Ajit Abhyankar also said that money-muscle combination had played a big role. “Nowadays elections have become an event. One who manages it can make an impression. Though sad, this is a fact. We will have to think of alternatives to take on this event management exercise,” he said.

... contd.