Shiv Sena (Shinde Faction) Fields Vijay Shivtare in Purandar, Set for Showdown with Congress’ Sanjay Jagtap

Pune:

In the 2019 elections, the then-united Shiv Sena party was not able to win a single seat in the Pune district. Out of 21 assembly constituencies in the Pune district, the NCP party won the maximum 10 seats, whereas the BJP and the Congress won 9 and 2 seats, respectively, from the Pune district in the last assembly election in 2019. However, in the 2023 by-election, the Congress party clinched the Kasba constituency from the BJP and hence increased its tally to 3 in the Pune district.

However, in this, the Shiv Sena party did not win a single seat from the Pune district. Therefore, in the current Mahayuti government, it was questioned whether the Shiv Sena party (Shinde group) will get to contest any seat in Pune as the Mahayuti coalition has majorly agreed to retain the seats by respective parties who won those seats in the last election.

However, the Shiv Sena (Shinde group) fielded its candidate from the Purandar assembly constituency. The Shiv Sena (Shinde group) has declared its second list of 20 candidates. In this list, the party has given the ticket to former minister of state, Vijay Shivtare, from Purandar. This time, Vijay Shivtare will face his old rival Sanjay Jagtap of Congress.

Shivtare was a two-time MLA from the Purandar assembly constituency in 2009 and 2014. In his second term, he was the minister of state in the then Mahayuti government of the BJP and the Shiv Sena. However, in the 2019 election, the Congress’ candidate Sanjay Jagtap defeated Vijay Shivtare with the help of the then-united NCP and particularly Ajit Pawar.

After that, Shivtare was largely sidelined from mainstream politics. However, after the internal rebellion in the Shiv Sena party in 2022, Shivtare decided to go with the CM Eknath Shinde. Finally, he got the benefit of his loyalty to Shinde as he once again got a ticket from the Purandar assembly constituency.

This time also Shivtare will face the sitting MLA of Purandar Sanjay Jagtap with the hope of settling the score of the last election. Whereas, on the other hand, Jagtap will look to continue his streak and will try to repeat his performance.