Hadapsar, a tough nut to crack for BJP

Party counts on its success in 2014 Assembly elections, but it will be harder to enter NCP bastion

Pune: At Hadapsar, a key area in the fight for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), an upbeat BJP hopes to wrest control from the NCP and the Shiv Sena. The party is piggybacking on its sweep in the 2014 Assembly polls when it bagged all eight Assembly segments of Pune district. But in the civic polls, it has an uphill task as the party’s visibility on the ground is limited, owing to the absence of a recognisable face.

Prior to the Assembly polls, the Sena’s Mahadev Babar was the legislator till he was upstaged by the BJP’s Yogesh Tilekar after the Sena and the BJP decided to contest separately.

Unlike Pimpri-Chinchwad, the party may find it harder to take on the NCP in Hadapsar as defections from the latter have been considerably less.

Further, the NCP, with several heavyweight corporators, has proven more politically enduring in this area. Of the 24 corporators, a considerable number are from the NCP. To combat the BJP, Sharad Pawar’s party is expected to throw its strongest players in the ring. The Mayor of Pune, Prashant Jagtap, is from this constituency; so are former mayors Chanchala Kodre and Vaishali Bankar.

The constituency has seen tremendous growth since 2000 in terms of real estate, industrial expansion, and information technology. The NCP will highlight its contribution to the transformation of Magarpatta City into one of Pune’s largest IT hubs.

The BJP, on the other hand, will have to attract the migrant population in Mohammadwadi, Kondhwa, and Mundhwa of Hadapsar, and come up with urban solutions to address concerns of traditional voters in areas like Hadapsar Gaonthan and Sasane Nagar.

“The perception in this segment is that the BJP, despite being in power in the State for a couple of years, hasn’t been able to achieve much in terms of addressing urban problems. In the absence of political horse-trading, the party really has to go the extra mile to remove the NCP,” said an analyst.

A total of 162 corporators have to be elected for the new general body at the PMC, as opposed to 152 in 2012.