Pimpri-Chinchwad: The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as former corporator Sandeep Waghere from Pimpri Gaon entered the NCP on Monday. Waghere -- a long-time loyalist of the BJP -- left after his political rival Sanjog Waghere joined the BJP with many others from the Pimpri-Chinchwad city in Mumbai on Saturday.
Sandeep Waghere’s inclusion is being seen as a counterattack by the NCP on the BJP, as both are battling to get the power single-handedly in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). It was announced a few days before that in both the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and PCMC elections on 15th January, state allies BJP and NCP will contest independently, and both would have a ‘friendly contest’.
After Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the BJP and his deputy Ajit Pawar’s NCP would have a friendly contest in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, local BJP leaders in Pimpri-Chinchwad moved swiftly, inducting 17 former corporators from other parties, many of them from Ajit Pawar’s NCP. Earlier this month, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP had poached two former PCMC standing committee members from the BJP.
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On Saturday in Mumbai, former mayor Sanjog Waghere, once a loyalist of the NCP, along with several leaders from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Nationalist Congress Party–Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP), the Indian National Congress, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Following these developments, several local BJP leaders, particularly from the Nigdi Pradhikaran and Pimpri Gaon areas, expressed discontent, questioning why the party was inducting leaders from outside while allegedly overlooking the loyalty and contribution of long-time party workers.
Amid this growing resentment, a series of exits was anticipated, and the first such development unfolded on Sunday when former corporator Sandeep Waghere resigned from the BJP and officially joined the NCP. His induction took place in the presence of NCP national president and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, along with NCP Pimpri-Chinchwad election in-charge Vitthal Kate.
Speaking on the occasion, Kate said that the inclusion of Sandeep Waghere would further strengthen the NCP’s organisational base in Pimpri-Chinchwad and boost the party’s prospects in the upcoming civic elections.
Long-time political observers in the city said that Sandeep Waghere commands a strong presence in the heart of Pimpri-Chinchwad, having managed to breach the NCP’s stronghold in Ward No. 20 (Pimpri Gaon) during the 2017 civic elections. He was the only BJP candidate to win from the ward at the time, while the remaining three seats were secured by candidates from the then-unified NCP.
