Pune: The City Congress claimed ignorance about an alliance party getting the Kothrud seat in the Assembly election. They were reacting to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) senior leader Ajit Pawar’s announcement that four Assembly seats each would be allotted to the Congress and the NCP in Pune while the Kothrud seat from the Congress quota will go to an alliance party.
NCP indicated that Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) will be the alliance party getting the Kothrud seat. MNS is already creating problems for the Congress and the NCP, even though it is still unclear whether MNS would join the alliance.
NCP’s announcement about the Kothrud seat was made without taking the Congress into confidence. This has created confusion in the Congress. There was speculation that MNS would join the grand alliance. However, neither the alliance nor the MNS spoke about it.
Pawar did not mention the name of the alliance party getting the Kothrud seat. MNS leader Kishor Shinde had contested from the Kothrud seat in 2009.
Congress City Unit President Ramesh Bagwe told Sakal Times, “There are six-seven parties in the grand alliance. We don’t know which alliance party NCP was talking about in connection with Kothrud.”
Another senior Congress leader said, “NCP is playing pressure tactics. Ajit Pawar had also made a similar statement before the Pune Lok Sabha elections that NCP would contest the Pune Lok Sabha seat. It did not happen.” He said, “In Pune, the Congress and NCP would have equal number of seats (four each) and give a seat from their quota to an alliance party if they want to. Till date, other than MNS, no alliance party has shown interest in a Pune seat. It means NCP wanted to give a seat to MNS in Pune in Kothrud. But, how can NCP unilaterally decide to give a seat to MNS from the Congress quota.” During the 2009 state polls, Congress and NCP had an alliance. Congress contested from Kasba Peth, Parvati, Hadapsar, Pune Cantonment while NCP fielded candidates from Khadakwasla, Kothrud, Shivajinagar and Vadgaon Sheri.
Congress leaders said NCP should follow the 2009 formula. But NCP is claiming the Congress seats of Hadapsar and Parvati and giving the Kothrud seat to partner. “Parvati is our seat as per 2009 formula. Now, NCP is claiming it. So, we are getting only three seats against the 2009 formula. This is unacceptable,” said Congress sources.
