Pune: Congress Party’s Pune city unit celebrated its win in assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh by bursting crackers at Congress Bhavan.
In sharp contrast, the BJP’s office in Pune near Jungli Maharaj Road, sported a deserted look after they fell flat on face in these states, tasting defeat in elections in these major states after a long time.
The ruling party had celebrated grand victories in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Pune Municipal Corporation elections and Gujarat Assembly polls. During those victories, people travelling through small lanes faced traffic jams because of the celebratory mood. The spacious Congress Bhavan would be deserted but the tables have turned now.
On Tuesday, a team of senior Congress members was present at the Congress Bhavan to watch the live results. As the day progressed and Congress’ win looked evident, the mood changed and the crowd gathered to celebrate. Congress City Unit Chief Ramesh Bagwe, former MLA Mohan Joshi, corporator and former corporator Virendra Kirad and Kaka Chavan were present. NCP City Unit Chief Chetan Tupe also visited Congress Bhavan to greet the leaders.
Joshi, who is also the general secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, said, “The Modi government and BJP criticised the Congress. They excoriated the Gandhi family. We will evaluate the poll results and improve party performance in other forthcoming Assembly elections.”
Tupe said that people have voted against government’s false promises. “Now, people want development and not assurances. Five assembly state election results are showing that people are not fools. Congress and NCP will jointly fight against BJP government.”
Accept defeat: BJP
Yogesh Gogawale, City Unit Chief of BJP said, “We accept our defeat. We will now evaluate our performance and improve in the future. We will fight back in the forthcoming elections.”
MP from Pune, Sanjay Kakade, had some harsh words for his own party’s policymakers. “BJP should have left Ram Mandir issue, building statue and (steered clear of) caste politics. Otherwise, they will not get power in the forthcoming election. It is time to think about their policies and agenda of BJP government,” Kakade said.
