Pune: Congress and NCP (SP) members on Tuesday alleged that guidelines had not been followed to demarcate ward boundaries for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) polls, with the initiative favouring BJP. The politicians said they would approach the state election commission and the Bombay high court to raise objections against the existing draft.Maps of 41 wards are open to suggestions and objections till Thursday and the civic administration has received around 1,382, so far.MVA partner Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Aam Aadmi Party have also objected strongly to the ward maps.Congress city unit chief Arvind Shinde said, “We will raise further objections till Thursday. Natural boundaries like rivers, nullahs, highways and prominent roads have been ignored. There was no need to separate sections of vasti (settlements) and slums, which have been divided abruptly. It is an attempt to benefit BJP aspirants.”He said Congress wants to apprise citizens that ward delimitations are illogical. “BJP plan to draft wards in its own favour and win the election will not work. People will reject such abrupt divisions of their areas,” Shinde added.Former mayor and NCP (SP) senior member Ankush Kakade said even Mahayuti partners NCP and Shiv Sena are unhappy and their officebearers have publicly expressed displeasure. “Except BJP, no one is in support of the new delimitation,” he added.NCP (SP) city unit head Prashant Jagtap said the delimitation draft is not suitable for citizens and will restrict corporators while executing civic works. He said the party would put forth protest details before the HC, next week. “We are gathering details and will quote examples of various wards where natural boundaries have not been followed or slum pockets and vasti divided into two separate wards deliberately for political gains,” he added.Meanwhile, head of BJP ciy unit Dheeraj Ghate said, “The charges against us are baseless. The party had no role to play in ward formation. We have always worked towards the development of the city and pushed ahead many projects during BJP’s PMC tenure between 2017 and 2022.”Merger of various areas within PMC limits has led changes in ward boundaries for the upcoming civic polls. Wadgaon Sheri MLA and NCP (SP) leader Bapu Pathare said there is significant difference between the population of wards — while some have 75,000 people, others have over 90,000.
