Pune: Clashes between two factions of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Pune unit on Tuesday resulted in extensive damage to the party’s office within the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The fracas occurred during the process of appointing nominees to the PMC by various political parties. These candidates or ‘co-opted corporators’ are typically those who were not given a ticket to contest the civic polls and are specially chosen by parties to enter the civic body as corporators.
Three candidates from the BJP, which is the dominant party in the PMC, followed by one candidate from the Nationalist Congress Party (the second-largest party) and one from either the Congress or the Shiv Sena were to be chosen and their names submitted to the PMC Commissioner for them to become part of the civic body.
According to sources, the candidacy of Ganesh Ghosh, president of the city’s BJP youth wing, was ostensibly a certainty. However, at the last minute, senior BJP leader Ganesh Bidkar was given preference instead.
This led to heated clashes between the loyalists of Mr. Ghosh and Mr. Bidkar, with Mr. Ghosh’s followers thoroughly vandalising the party office inside the PMC.
Shards of glass were strewn on the floor as the disgruntled nominee’s followers completely destroying the chamber of Shrinath Bhimale, the BJP’s Leader of House in the PMC, and several other pieces of furniture. Mr. Ghosh and his followers alleged that Mr. Bidkar secured his nomination through bribery.
Mr. Bidkar, who once served as chief of the PMC’s Standing Committee, was heavily defeated by former MNS leader-turned-heavyweight Independent candidate Ravindra Dhangekar in the recent civic polls.
The incident led to widespread censure from the Opposition. Congress leader Arvind Shinde said, “Absolute power had corrupted the BJP absolutely. Despite securing an unprecedented 98 seats, its leaders display such ignominious behaviour as they jockey for power to secure three more seats. The party must apologise to the citizens of Pune for destroying public property.”
Mayor and senior BJP leader Mukta Tilak condemned the vandalism as unfortunate and shameful. “It’s a blot on the party. The BJP will compensate for the damage wrought by its own workers on the PMC’s property,” Ms. Tilak said.
