Pune: The Congress party has staked its claim on five constituencies for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. As of now, 14 aspirants have submitted their applications to contest from eight constituencies in the city.

Following the strategy used in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, along with its allies in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), has decided to contest the assembly elections jointly.

Although the seat-sharing arrangement within the MVA is yet to be finalized, all three alliance parties have started their preparations for the elections.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar and the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray have already claimed their seats in Pune. Now, the Congress has also claimed five out of the eight assembly constituencies in the city.

The city Congress officials held their weekly meeting on Tuesday, July 9, during which they decided to claim these five constituencies. The Kasba constituency is currently represented by a Congress MLA.

In the previous assembly elections, Congress candidates narrowly lost in Shivajinagar and Pune Cantonment constituencies. Consequently, the party has decided to claim these three constituencies along with Parvati and Hadapsar.

Additionally, the party has invited applications from those interested in contesting the assembly elections. So far, 14 aspirants have submitted their applications to the party.

Within the Mahavikas Aghadi, NCP Sharad Pawar faction will be claiming Khadakwasla and Hadapsar assembly constituencies. Prashant Jagtap, the Pune city president of Sharad Pawar faction, has significant influence in Hadapsar.

Sharad Pawar is expected to field a strong candidate like Sachin Dodke, who narrowly lost by 2,500 votes in 2019, in the Khadakwasla Assembly constituency.

Additionally, this constituency showed robust support for Supriya Sule in the Lok Sabha elections, further solidifying Pawar's claim on the seat.