Pune: Bigger parties have no dearth of aspirants queuing up for tickets, but smaller and regional parties are finding it tough to find the right candidate. These parties see civic polls as the base for building their presence in Maharashtra. As of Wednesday, around 2,300 aspirants had reached out to the BJP for tickets, while over 1,200 have contacted the Congress for candidature.Parties like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharat Rashtra Samithi, with a sizeable following in their regions, and other parties, are trying to make inroads in the state through the civic polls. However, many of their aspirants are candidates who did not receive tickets from the BJP and the Congress.
Political experts said parties are looking for candidates with winning potential. “Bigger parties have more aspirants. Political ideologies have taken a backseat. Parties give preference to those who have more probability of victory,” Prakash Pawar, a senior political analyst, said.“We have a few pockets in the eastern parts of Pune where candidates are available. But finding them for other locations is not possible. Our party has a cadre. Many are interested in fighting polls. Some ticket hopefuls reach out to us at the very last stage of filing nominations when no other party gives them a ticket,” Dilip Kusale, a senior BSP leader in Pune, said.
