Pune: NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday urged MVA partners to contest civic body polls jointly, echoing their alliance strategy in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, despite Mahayuti partners considering solo bids in local body polls.Following the Supreme Court’s directives, state govt has confirmed that all the pending elections of civic bodies will be held within the time stipulated by the apex court. Soon after the Supreme Court’s verdict, every major party in the state is now trying to gauge its own strength along with its alliance partners before the announcement of the dates of the polls.Amidst the parties’ preparations for the elections, Pawar, during an informal discussion with media persons in Pune on Saturday morning, suggested that opposition parties continued to contest as an alliance to take on Mahayuti in the upcoming civic polls.“As far as the preparations for Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) election are concerned, the responsibility has been given to city president Prashant Jagtap. Some of the candidates of the party have also been finalised already, but considering the larger perspective regarding all the civic bodies, I feel that MVA should go for these elections together,” Pawar said.Following Mahayuti getting the massive mandate in the assembly election to form govt in the state, many members from all three opposition parties have switched to Mahayuti to be in govt. With the challenge to keep the flock together, MVA partners feel that instead of going solo, contesting civic bodies jointly will strengthen their position.Congress state president Harshwardhan Sapkal on Saturday said, “Our fight is to save democracy from the clutches of BJP. For that, we are ready to take all the like-minded parties together. That is the reason we formed INDIA bloc at the national level and MVA in the state, and we will continue to remain together.”While MVA’s partner Shiv Sena (UBT) is looking at the possibility of joining hands with MNS and thereby a reunion of Thackerays, the alliance partners are also keeping a close watch on the political development between the two cousins.Reacting to the speculation of both Thackerays coming together, Sharad Pawar said, “Raj Thackeray manages to pull crowds for his rallies, but he is not able to convert the response into votes.”“On the other hand, Uddhav Thackeray, despite the split in his party, has managed to attract votes in his favour and win some important seats in Lok Sabha and assembly polls, ” The NCP (SP) chief added.
