The Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has nominated the party's Pune City Chief Prashant Jagtap from the Hadapsar Assembly constituency. After the announcement, Jagtap took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "This is not just my candidacy; this is the result of the fight given with loyalty and self-respect during the struggle. I am indebted to all the office-bearers and workers of NCP-SP's Pune unit who stood firmly behind me in this struggle. With the same spirit with which we have fought till now, let us fight unitedly and win with self-respect."
On the other hand, the NCP led by Ajit Pawar has renominated Chetan Tupe, putting speculations to rest that the seat might go to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena. He had defeated BJP's Yogesh Tilekar in 2019, who is now a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, with Tupe getting the ticket, it is almost certain that the Sena will not contest any of the eight seats in Pune City, although talks are going on for the Khadakwasla seat.
Besides, the Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) has announced Afroz Mulla as the candidate from Hadapsar. According to his X (formerly Twitter) bio, he is the convenor of the Secularist Muslim Front and a state committee member of Vanchit Bahujan Yuva Aaghadi (VBYA). He is a Bombay High Court lawyer by profession and has studied at the University of London and the University of Glasgow.
Additionally, Maharashtra Muslim Conference (MMC) National Convener Zubair Memon has also said that he will contest the elections from the Hadapsar seat. Zubair claimed that Hadapsar is a Muslim-majority constituency, with 33.4 per cent of its population from the community. He added that it is the only seat in western Maharashtra where a Muslim candidate has a strong chance of winning, supported solely by the votes from the community.
