For the most part, NCP chief Ajit Pawar led the campaign and held rallies and road shows in both Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad. No other functionaries, even from the NCP, was seen campaigning for alliance candidates in the city. MP Supriya Sule of NCP (SP), who initially said she would lead the campaign in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) limits too, stayed away and joined the campaign in the city only on Monday. For BJP, senior functionaries including CM Devendra Fadnavis, minister Pankaja Munde, Shivendraraje Bhosale, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Gopichand Padalkar, and Suresh Dhas, held a series of public meetings for the party candidates. Besides, their local MLAs and MLCs also led the campaigns in the city, while the NCP’s only MLA from Pimpri Chinchwad, deputy speaker of the state Legislative Council Anna Bansode, limited his campaign to ward no. 9, from where his son Siddharth is contesting the election. When the two NCP factions released their joint manifesto for the PMC polls at a press conference on Saturday, Sule was asked about her absence from the campaign in Pune. She responded, saying that those doubting her presence must check her social media platforms to determine her whereabouts. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, however, intervened, saying Sule had asked him to lead the campaign as her elder brother, and that she would follow him.
