Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) national working president Praful Patel on Wednesday, 7 October acknowledged that the party's failure to retain the Pune Graduates Constituency for the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council election on 23 October had dealt a morale blow to workers across five districts in western Maharashtra. The remarks mark the second consecutive day that senior NCP figures have spoken openly about internal dissatisfaction over the seat allocation within the ruling Mahayuti alliance.

What Patel Said

'It is certainly demoralising for our cadre in the five districts under which the Pune Graduates Constituency falls. The seat was with us, and we had won it on our symbol in the previous election,' Patel said when asked about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contesting the seat instead of the NCP. He added that the decision was finalised in a meeting involving Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the two Deputy Chief Ministers, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar. 'But now that the decision has been made, it will be contested as a Mahayuti seat,' he said.

The Background: How the NCP Lost the Seat

The Pune Graduates Constituency had historically belonged to the NCP — Arun Lad won it on the party's Clock symbol six years ago. His son, Sharad Lad, subsequently joined the BJP and was reportedly keen to contest the seat. The BJP ultimately secured the seat within the Mahayuti seat-sharing arrangement and fielded Smita Jadhav as its candidate.

Party sources told reporters, on condition of anonymity, that several senior NCP leaders had cautioned against conceding the seat, given its historical association with the party. The sources also alleged that negotiations involved only a limited number of leaders before the decision was finalised — with no prior meeting held with the broader senior leadership.

Tatkare's 'Collective Failure' Remark

A day earlier, on the last day for filing nominations, Maharashtra NCP president and Lok Sabha MP Sunil Tatkare described the outcome as a collective failure. 'The Pune Graduates Constituency seat rightly belonged to the Nationalist Congress Party. However, it is a fact that the party did not get this seat. We must have fallen short somewhere, and this must be considered a collective failure,' Tatkare said.

The back-to-back statements by two of the party's most prominent figures signal that discontent over the seat is more than routine post-allocation grumbling — it reflects a deeper anxiety about the NCP's leverage within the Mahayuti coalition.

The Shinde Contrast

Party sources pointed to a telling contrast: despite BJP pressure, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's faction fielded its own candidate, Mangesh Chivate, for the Pune Teachers' Constituency, keeping negotiations open rather than conceding the seat. This is being cited internally as evidence that firmer bargaining could have yielded a different outcome for the NCP.

Senior BJP leader and Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil has been named the overall campaign chief for the Mahayuti alliance for both the Pune Graduates and Pune Teachers constituencies.

Opposition Moves to Capitalise

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is watching closely. Congress leader Satej Patil and other MVA figures are seeking to leverage the visible cracks within Mahayuti to rally graduate voters across the Pune division — comprising Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, and Kolhapur districts. Separately, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction issued AB forms to both Pradeep Mane and Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav ahead of the nomination deadline as a tactical hedge.

With the 23 October election approaching, how the NCP reconciles public candour about losses with active campaign mobilisation for the Mahayuti ticket will test the alliance's cohesion at the grassroots level.