Pune, Jan 1 (NationPress) The forthcoming elections for the Pune Municipal Corporation, set to take place after an eight-year hiatus, have ignited fierce competition—not just among rival parties, but also within them. In an extraordinary incident at the Sahakarnagar Regional Office, a candidate from Shiv Sena (Shinde) audaciously seized and swallowed the ‘AB’ form belonging to another party member to eliminate internal rivals.

The cutoff for submitting nominations was December 30. Amid a surge of candidates, the ruling Mahayuti alliance (comprising BJP and Shiv Sena-Shinde) faced challenges in finalizing seat-sharing arrangements right up to the last moment. To avoid missing the deadline, Shiv Sena leaders distributed ‘AB’ forms to multiple contenders across various constituencies, resulting in a chaotic scenario where two candidates laid claim to the same seat. This drama unfolded in Ward No. 36 (Sahakarnagar-Padmavati).

Initially, Shiv Sena had nominated Machhindra Dhawale and provided him with the official ‘AB’ form. Subsequently, the party designated Uddhav Kamble as the official candidate with another ‘AB’ form. When Dhawale declined to withdraw his candidacy, Kamble reportedly seized Dhawale’s 'AB' form during the scrutiny phase and ingested it.

Assistant Returning Officer Manisha Bhutkar has filed a complaint against Uddhav Kamble for obstructing government operations, leading to police action. Sources indicate he has been detained, with more information pending.

The confusion is not limited to Shiv Sena. Both factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are currently embroiled in a seat-sharing dispute despite an existing pre-poll alliance in Pune. Although NCP (Ajit Pawar) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) reached a preliminary agreement on a 125:40 seat-sharing ratio, the actual allocation of forms reveals a different narrative. Reports indicate that NCP (Ajit Pawar) issued over 165 ‘AB’ forms, while NCP (Sharad Pawar) issued around 90 ‘AB’ forms.

To avert widespread dissatisfaction among candidates, both factions of the NCP opted to distribute ‘AB’ forms directly at regional offices on the final day. However, this approach backfired, resulting in numerous instances where both parties issued forms for the same seat, or a single faction issued forms to two different candidates for one ward.

Due to this internal 'AB form chaos,' neither faction managed to publish an official list of candidates by Wednesday.

While party leaders insist that they adhered to the agreed-upon formula, the reality on the ground indicates that the number of nominations submitted far exceeds the allocated quotas, leaving the alliance in a state of administrative turmoil.