Pune: Triangular contest in Shivajinagar segment
Pune: A triangular contest is on the cards in the Chhatrapati Shivajinagar Assembly constituency in the city. It will be fought among sitting BJP MLA Siddharth Shirole, Congress candidate Datta Bahirat and Manish Anand, the Congress rebel contesting as an independent.
The seat was held by the BJP in the past two elections. The Congress had a landslide victory in 2008. BJP’s Shirole won with a margin of around 5,000 votes in 2019. Bahirat succeeded in persuading his party leadership that he could not only cover a slender margin but could get more votes needed for victory and insisted on his candidature.
On the other hand, his party rival Manish Anand, who was the Vice-President of the Khadki Cantonment Board, was determined to fight the election. His wife Pooja Anand was also a member of the board.
Manish Anand said, “I was denied the party ticket in 2019 and this time too. My supporters and workers are insisting that I should contest. Therefore, I have decided to fight the poll. I will go to voters with my plan of what I have done all these years as a member and the Vice-President of the board. I will raise issues faced by the people. I am sure they will support me.”
