BJP pacifies party rebels, Jagtap is Chinchwad candidate

Pune: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has persuaded a rebel group of former corporators to extend support to their candidate Shankar Jagtap in the Chinchwad assembly poll.

After the saffron party picked Jagtap, former city president of Pimpri-Chinchwad, as per the seat sharing arrangement of the Mahayuti alliance that also includes the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, former corporators, including Shankar Jagtap, Ram Wakadkar, Sandeep Kaspate, and Rajendra Jagtap, amongst others, openly opposed his candidature and demanded the ticket to be given to one of their group members.

The BJP, to pacify another leader Shatrughan Kate, on Monday itself made him the BJP city president of Pimpri-Chinchwad. The alliance will, however, have to face two rebel candidates of the NCP-Ajit Pawar faction—Nana Kate and Bhausaheb Bhoir—who filed papers as independent candidates on Monday.

The Chinchwad fight is between BJP’s Shankar Jagtap, brother-in-law of sitting MLA Ashwini Jagtap and Rahul Kalate of NCP (SP).

“State president Chandrashekhar Bawankule has placed his trust in me by giving me the responsibility of the city president’s position, and I will fulfil the role sincerely,” said Kate.