Pune: As the Lok Sabha 2019 verdict is out, Pune’s Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)’s candidate Girish Bapat has won with a margin of 3,24,628 votes while Congress candidate Mohan Joshi registered 3,08,207 votes. There are 29 other candidates of regional parties and other independent candidates who lost their deposits. District Collector and Pune Returning Officer Naval Kishore Ram has issued a notice to all these candidates.
“There were total 31 candidates fighting from Pune constituency and except two candidates that is Girish Bapat and Mohan Joshi, remaining 29 candidates have failed to garner 1/6’th of the total valid votes in the constituency and hence, their deposits have been forfeited and a notice have been given to them highlighting the same,” said Ram.
The total number of valid votes in Pune constituency is 10,24,235, while the number of votes a candidate needs to secure to save his deposit is 1,70,106. The 29 candidates, whose deposits were forfeited, are Uttam Pandurang Shinde of Bahujan Samaj Party who secured only 4,792 votes and 13 candidates of registered political parties other than recognised political parties and 15 independent candidates.
However, these candidates, who lost their deposits, felt that people voted for high profile parties and not the issues. Kanchan Kshirsagar, an independent candidate, who was also the only woman candidate in Pune, secured just 441 votes and felt that the bigger parties received maximum votes. She said, “It is fine that I have lost but somewhere I feel that people voted for high profile parties with big faces and not for the basic issues that affect their everyday lives. There is no work that happened in the last five years and now, there is also no hope.” “As I am a social worker and even though people have not voted for me, I will continue working for the people living in slums,” added Kshirsagar
Ramesh Devaram Dharmavat from People’s Union Party, whose symbol is the helmet, felt that people did not connect with the local issues. He said, “One of the main issues of our party was helmet compulsion in Pune. We were against it. However, when we were campaigning, the feedback at ground level was very positive but it did not reflect in the results.”
“People did not vote for the local issues and voted for issues of national security. Another reason is the amount of money big parties can spend on marketing and branding. Small parties or independent candidates will not be able to do so,” added Dharmavat.
