PUNE: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ally Republican Party of India (RPI) chief and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athavale has said that the party has demanded 22 seats for the forthcoming Assembly polls, which include Pune Cantonment and Pimpri Assembly constituencies.
During his Pune visit, Athavale held a press conference on Saturday.
City-based Republican Party of India leader and Deputy Mayor Siddharth Dhende and others were present during the conference.
“BJP-Shiv Sena will win around 220-225 seats in the forthcoming Assembly polls. Republican Party of India has demanded 22 seats. We are expecting at least 10 seats. In Pune, we want Pune Cantonment seat, while in Pimpri Chinchwad, we want the Pimpri seat,” Athavale said.
“We want one cabinet minister and one state minister post in the next government. I have written a letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis regarding the same,” he further added. “Both Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are sinking whereas the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has emerged as the ruling party. Congress wanted to conduct polls on the ballot paper. However, it was the Congress that introduced EVMs in polls due to bogus voting. Now, people are voting for Narendra Modi and Congress is raising doubts on the EVMs,” the Union minister alleged.
While criticising Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray, he said, “Thackeray doesn’t have any other business. He met Mamata Banarjee, the leader of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) but he is wasting time. He should focus on his own party.”
