Pune: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was to release its first list of candidates for the Pune Municipal Corporatioin (PMC) poll on Friday, was forced to postpone the declaration in an apparent bid to quell discontent within the party, sources said, adding it was still to strike a deal with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena over a seat-sharing formula.Though ticket hopefuls have been eagerly waiting to see if they have been picked, the sources from BJP said the first list is likely to be announced in the next couple of days, with 50 to 60 names. Officer bearers from the party’s city unit, who included sitting MLAs, attended a meeting in Mumbai chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis two days ago to finalise the names. “However, even after the discussions, the party preferred not to declare the list as there was no consensus on some seats,” a source said.Pune MP Muralidhar Mohol, however, said on Saturday that the list would be out soon and there were no differences over seats. “The names will be declared soon. Even the talks with BJP’s alliance partner Shiv Sena are underway, and a deal will be reached soon,” he said.BJP has received a significant number of applications. The party has so far held interviews with more than 2,300 aspirants, including office bearers and former corporators, who are looking to contest the PMC election on a party ticket. A former corporator from BJP said there were a large number of aspirants, which must have pushed the leadership to hold the list and declare it a couple of days before the last day of filing nominations. “The chances of aspirants jumping to other parties after finding their names missing from the list cannot be ruled out,” he said.It is obvious that there is a stiff competition to secure tickets, a senior BJP politician said. “Some may face disappointment over the denial of tickets, but we are sure that all the workers would fight the PMC poll together to secure a win for the party,” he said.Two more former corporators join BJPNCP’s senior member and former standing committee chairman Dilip Barate and Abhijit Shivarkar, son of former Congress minister and former MLA Balasaheb Shivarkar, on Saturday joined BJP in the presence of Pune MP Muralidhar Mohol and city unit head Dheeraj Ghate. Shivarkar was a corporator from Wanowrie between 2007 and 2012. Barate hails from Warje and has been active in the city politics for the last three decades.
