Congress to contest from three seats in Pune, two from district; party leadership finalises candidates

Pune: Three Congress candidates have almost been finalised from Pune. The sitting MLAs from Bhor and Purandar, namely – Sangram Thopte and Sanjay Jagtap – will be retained. The first list of the Congress will most likely have the three names from the city.

The High Command has finalised the names of candidates from the Kasba peth, Shivajinagar and Cantonment Assembly seats. It is learnt that Ravindra Dhangekar will contest from the Kasba Peth, Ramesh Bagwe from Cantonment and Datta Bahirat from Shivajinagar.

Kasba Peth MLA Ravindra Dhangekar will contest his third election. He defeated the BJP’s Hemant Rasne in the Assembly bypoll after the then sitting MLA Mukta Tilak passed away. Later, he was fielded in the Lok Sabha too. But he lost. He is known as a legislator who has risen from the common people.

Datta Bahirat lost by 5,124 votes in 2019. Though the Shivajinagar seat is a BJP fortress, his tough fight earned him laurels. It is likely to be a close contest again.

Ramesh Bagwe was the president of the party’s city unit for five consecutive years. He is a former Minister of State for Home and represented the Parvati Assembly segment during 2004-2009. He was defeated in the elections in 2014 and 2019. But he is known as an old face of the party.

Sanjay Jagtap defeated Shiv Sena’s Vijay Shivtare in 2019 due to the NCP-Congress alliance. He has at his command a network of institutions and development credit societies. Therefore, there is no challenge to his candidature within the party.

Sangram Thopte is the son of former State Minister Anantrao Thopte. The family has held sway over the Bhor constituency for the past four decades. He retained the fortress during the Modi wave in 2014. The family name is synonymous with Bhor. He has done a lot of development work and has a firm grip over his segment.