Ajit Pawar, the senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and the opposition leader in the state assembly, stated on Saturday that the Election Commission of India is expected to imminently declare the bypoll election for the Pune constituency.
During a conversation with media representatives in Pune, Ajit Pawar revealed, "Based on reliable internal sources, I have received information that the announcement for the bypoll election in Pune's Loksabha constituency is imminent. To be honest, I was under the impression that the election would not be called for since we are just one year away from the Loksabha Election in 2024."
When asked if the NCP plans to take part in the upcoming bypoll election, Ajit Pawar replied, "In Pune, our party, the NCP, is stronger than other parties. We proved this by winning 40 seats in the municipal election. I believe that whichever party is strong within our alliance (MVA) in a specific constituency should be given the chance to contest the election there. To decide this, we should consider the party's past performance."
Pune constituency's Lok Sabha seat became vacant following the unfortunate demise of Girish Bapat from the BJP. As per the previous seat sharing agreement between the Congress and NCP, the Pune constituency seat belonged to Congress, and their candidate Mohan Joshi had previously contested the election but lost to Girish Bapat of the BJP.