Pune: The Vadgaon Sheri assembly constituency will see a direct fight between sitting BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Jagdish Mulik and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Sunil Tingre, who contested on Shiv Sena’s ticket in the last assembly polls.
However, there is still the question of whether the Sena will support Mulik, as the party is miffed with BJP for not getting a single seat in Pune.
The Vadgaon Sheri seat known as an NCP-stronghold was won by Mulik in the last assembly elections in 2014.
Till then, the Congress-NCP and BJP-Shiv Sena alliances were formed for this place.
Shiv Sena had given candidature to Sunil Tingre in 2014. He was an NCP aspirant but joined Shiv Sena when NCP gave a ticket to former MLA Bapu Pathare.
Tingre went back to NCP and contested the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) election in 2017. He is currently an NCP corporator representing Nagpur Chawl - Phule Nagar area, which is a part of Vadgaon Sheri constituency.
Unrest in Sena
As expected, Shiv Sena, which was claiming Vadgaon Sheri, was upset that their corporator from Yerawada, Sanjay Bhosale, was not considered for BJP-Sena coalition. Bhosale rebelled and filed his nomination, but withdrew it after being pacified.
In this constituency, there are 17 corporators, out of which, 14 are from BJP and three are from Shiv Sena. Before delimitation, it was known as Bopodi assembly constituency and was a bastion of the Congress party.
The equation changed in 2014 when BJP presence increased. After BJP formed the government at Centre and State, many local NCP corporators joined BJP.
