Maharashtra: Hold Pune Civic Polls Using 2017 Ward Structure; Demand for Separate Wards For 32 Merged Villages
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Pune, May 6: Former corporators Ujwal Keskar, Suhas Kulkarni, and Prashant Badhe have demanded that the upcoming Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections be conducted using the existing 2017 ward structure for the old city limits, while a separate ward structure should be created for the 32 newly merged villages.
They emphasized that instead of redrawing the entire ward structure based on the new boundaries, the wards within the old municipal limits should be retained as per the 2017 layout. Elections for the 32 merged villages should be held separately after designing a new ward structure exclusively for those areas.
The trio reminded that when they had earlier filed a petition in court regarding this issue, the Supreme Court, on March 11, 2022, had directed that the election process should begin within 15 days based on the existing ward structure at that time. However, the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government and the State Election Commission ignored the court’s directive.
They drew parallels to the 2002 PMC elections, when polls were first held using the existing wards of the old municipal limits. Subsequently, within a month, elections were conducted separately for 23 villages that had been merged into the PMC in 1997, after a new ward structure was formed for them.
Ujwal Keskar reiterated that a similar approach should be taken now. The four-member ward structure of 2017 should be retained for the old limits, and a separate new ward structure should be created for the 32 merged villages, followed by independent elections for them.
