Pimpri: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday declared sitting MLAs Laxman Jagtap and Mahesh Landge as its candidates for the Chinchwad and Bhosari Assembly constituencies respectively.
There is suspense over the moves of those leaders in the BJP, Shiv Sena and RPI (Athavale) who were aspiring to be the official nomination in Chinchwad, Pimpri and Bhosari seats.
Both Jagtap and Landge were associated with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a long time. In 2014, Jagtap was elected to the State Assembly on a BJP ticket while Landge was elected as independent from Bhosari and later joined the BJP as an associate member.
BJP’s ally, Shiv Sena, has already declared sitting MLA Gautam Chabukswar as its candidate in Pimpri Scheduled Caste Reserved Constituency. Chankrakanta Sonkamble, who in 2014 fought against Chabukswar as a nominee of the RPI (Athavale) and BJP has also collected nomination forms for Pimpri seat.
There are many BJP loyalists aspiring for the party’s nomination in Bhosari and Pimpri constituencies. The BJP’s candidates had lost in these two constituencies in the 2014 elections.
Leader of the House in Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Eknath Pawar and corporator Ravi Landge had sought the BJP nomination in Bhosari constituency.
Corporator Ravi Landge had collected nomination forms on Monday.
The Nationalist Congress Party has not declared any candidates for these constituencies.
