BJP's Murlidhar Mohol vs Congress' Ravindra Dhangekar: No simple choices for Pune voters

PUNE: 'Kay Mhantat Punekar' (what do Punekars say) is the question which will decide the fate of the BJP and Congress in the upcoming election on Pune Lok Sabha seat, which was once the stronghold of the BJP over the past two Lok Sabha elections. However, a strange quirk of fate has altered the political equations here.

In the 2019 assembly elections, BJP won five of the six assembly seats of the Pune Parliamentary constituency. It all looked like a cakewalk for the party. However, two incidents in March 2023 changed the dynamics of the constituency.

Pune's MP and senior BJP leader Girish Bapat died after a prolonged illness. Before becoming an MP in 2019, Bapat was the MLA from Kasba Peth constituency, a BJP stronghold which the party didn't lose since 1995.


After Bapat, it was Mukta Tilak, former Pune mayor, who became the MLA from the constituency. In December 2022, Tilak passed away due to cancer. In March 2023, a bypoll was held for Kasba Peth, where the Congress fielded Ravindra Dhangekar. Dhangekar sprung a surprise by winning the BJP stronghold by over 10,000 votes. This was a shocker for the BJP as the party never expected to lose the seat. There was no bypoll for the Pune Lok Sabha for more than a year since Girish Bapat's death.

Congress has now fielded Dhangekar as the Lok Sabha candidate from Pune while BJP has fielded former mayor Murlidhar Mohol. Bapat was a Brahmin and this time, BJP has bet on a Maratha to douse the Maratha anger in parts of this constituency. Dhangekar is an OBC and an assembly victory has given hope to the Congress that he can end the dry spell for the party ever since Suresh Kalmadi won the seat in 2009. From poor urban infrastructure, traffic woes, the Maratha quota issue and Congress' allegation that the Constitution would be altered if the BJP comes to power, Pune mirrors all what is being discussed in Maharashtra politics.

"BJP will win Pune again but the winning margin will be lesser," Avinash Khandekar (57), a mutual fund advisor in Kothrud told ET. Khandekar said his vote is for Modi and not the BJP. In the same breath he said that the Congress candidate is quite strong and the victory margin could come down from over three lakh in 2019 to below 50,000.

"It has turned out to be a class vs mass contest with the masses supporting the Congress candidate," said Jaydeep Padwal, a property dealer.

The issue of change in the Constitution is also finding resonance on the ground. The BJP is aware of this and the party has been working to woo SC voters.

"There are 40 to 42 slum areas in Pune and we have visited every area touching almost all the houses and given them booklets which show how it is the Congress which amended the Constitution several times," Puneet Joshi, BJP campaign incharge of Pune Lok Sabha seat, told ET. There are 3.5 lakh SC voters in the constituency.

Poor urban infrastructure is also a huge talking point among the voters. "For the past 10 years, Pune has given everything to the BJP. MP, all MLAs, a mayor and more than 100 corporators. But see how the city infrastructure has collapsed. What else can one give," Sandeep Mokhate, a Congress worker told ET.

Grocery shop owner in Kasba Peth, Ravi Laygude (52), says he voted twice for the BJP since 2014. "I am a Maratha and this government doesn't think about us. I like Modi as Pant Pradhan but here I will vote for Congress," he says.

Mohan Joshi, the 2019 MP candidate of Congress and currently the campaign incharge of Pune Lok Sabha seat says that it is not hard to fill the 3.24 lakh vote gap which they faced last time. "Girish Bapat is not there. There are 1.5 lakh Shiv Sena votes which in 2019 went to the BJP but in 2024 will come to Congress. The people of Pune are fighting this election to defeat the BJP," he said.