NDA's ally is trapped, BJP will not give seats and candidates are ready to go to other parties

Maharashtra Politics: There is speculation about a possible split in Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. It is being said that many leaders of Ajit's faction may soon join the party led by uncle Sharad Pawar. However, nothing has been said officially about this yet. Assembly elections may be held in the state by the end of this year.

Ajit Gawane, president of the Pimpri Chinchwad unit of the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, may join senior Pawar's party. The special thing is that Gawane has expressed his desire to contest the assembly elections from the Bhosari seat. According to reports, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders say that the party will not give the Bhosari seat to the NCP.

BJP will not give ready-to-go seats and candidates to other parties

Along with Gavane, more than 15 former councillors may also be a part of the NCP (SP). There are reports that Gavane and a group of former councillors reached Sharad Pawar's residence in Pune on Saturday to meet him. While Gavane is denying the holding of any such meeting. He says that recently he met Ajit and expressed his desire to contest from the Bhosari seat.

When asked if he would leave the party if he did not get the green signal from Ajit, he said that till now my leader has not shown a red signal. So I do not want to comment on this at this time. But one thing is clear that I have already decided to contest from Bhosari seat. The report quoted sources as saying that Gawane will soon leave NCP as there is not much time left for the elections. However, NCP is denying that Gawane or any former councilor is leaving the party.

Bhosari seat

Mahesh Landge of BJP has been winning the election from this seat for the last two elections. The important thing is that Gwahen and Landge are relatives but Gwahen defeated Landge's brother from Bhosari in the 2017 civic elections. BJP leader and former councilor Seema Savle said, I don't think BJP will leave Bhosari seat for NCP.

He said that Bhosari is a safe seat considering the popularity of Mahesh Landge. In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, Bhosari was the only seat where the BJP-led alliance candidate Shivaji Rao Adhalrao-Patil was ahead. While in all other seats he was behind the NCP (SP) candidate.

He said that if Ajit Gawane enters the fray as speculated, the contest will be tough. The contest between Landge and Gawane will be exciting but all this is speculation.