Pune Municipal polls: Shiv Sena candidate swallows aspirant's 'AB' form; ticket chaos in NCP factions

Pune, Jan 1 (IANS) The upcoming Pune Municipal Corporation elections, being held after an eight-year gap, have sparked intense rivalry -- not just between opposing parties, but within them. In a bizarre turn of events at the Sahakarnagar Regional Office, a Shiv Sena (Shinde) candidate snatched and swallowed the ‘AB’ form of a fellow party member to eliminate internal competition.  

The final deadline for filing nominations was December 30. With a surge in aspirants, the ruling Mahayuti alliance (BJP and Shiv Sena-Shinde) struggled to finalise seat-sharing until the eleventh hour. To ensure they didn't miss the deadline, Shiv Sena leaders distributed ‘AB’ forms to multiple candidates across various constituencies, leading to a chaotic situation where two individuals claimed the same seat. The drama unfolded in Ward No. 36 (Sahakarnagar-Padmavati).

Initially, the Shiv Sena had fielded Machhindra Dhawale and issued him the official ‘AB’ form. However, the party later issued another ‘AB’ form to Uddhav Kamble, declaring him the official candidate. When Dhawale refused to withdraw his candidacy, Kamble allegedly grabbed Dhawale’s 'AB' form during the scrutiny process and swallowed it.

Assistant Returning Officer Manisha Bhutkar has registered a complaint against Uddhav Kamble for interfering with government work, and based on that, the police filed an offence. Sources said he has been taken into custody. Further details are awaited.

Meanwhile, the confusion was not limited to the Shiv Sena alone. Both factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are currently embroiled in a seat-sharing dispute despite a pre-poll alliance in Pune. While the NCP (Ajit Pawar) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) had initially agreed on a 125:40 seat-sharing formula, the actual distribution of forms tells a different story. NCP (Ajit Pawar) is reported to have issued over 165 ‘AB’ forms, and NCP (Sharad Pawar) approximately 90 ‘AB’ forms.

To prevent large-scale rebellion among aspirants, both NCP factions chose to distribute ‘AB’ forms directly at regional offices on the final day. However, this strategy backfired, resulting in multiple instances where both parties issued forms for the same seat, or a single faction issued forms to two different candidates for one ward.

Due to this internal "AB form chaos," neither faction was able to release an official list of candidates by Wednesday.

While the leaders maintain they stuck to the agreed formula, the ground reality suggests that the number of nominations filed far exceeds the allotted quotas, leaving the alliance in a state of administrative confusion.

--IANS

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