Former Kasba Peth MLA Ravindra Dhangekar's son, Pranav Dhangekar, is all set to make his political debut. Taking to Instagram, he has announced that he would be contesting the upcoming Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections from Ward No. 24 (Kasba Ganpati–Kamla Nehru Hospital–KME Hospital).
This comes after the draw for the reservation of seats for the PMC elections was held on Tuesday at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch. As per the draw, 83 of the 165 seats have been reserved for women. Among the 83 seats, 48 fall under the open category, 23 are reserved for OBC, 11 for Scheduled Caste (SC), and one for Scheduled Tribe (ST). Among men, 48 seats are open, 22 OBC, 11 SC, and one ST.
In Ward No. 24, the four seats are reserved for OBC (Women), General (Women), General, and General.
It was being speculated that either Dhangekar's wife or son would be contesting the polls. Now that his son has announced his candidature, it will be interesting to see if he gets the ticket from Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena or not.
Dhangekar has been in the news recently for targeting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Pune, particularly Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol over the Jain trust land deal case.
Dhangekar lost two consecutive elections
Dhangekar was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a Congress candidate from the Kasba Peth constituency in the bypoll held in 2023. However, he lost the seat in the 2024 Assembly polls as the BJP’s Hemant Rasane triumphed.
Before that, Dhangekar was defeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Pune after being given an opportunity by the Congress. He lost the Lok Sabha polls to the BJP’s Murlidhar Mohol.
He was first elected as a corporator of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on a Shiv Sena ticket. He followed Raj Thackeray after the formation of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and continued to get elected to the civic body. In 2017, he joined the Congress after being sidelined by the MNS.
