With loss of Bhor and Purandar seats, Congress’s century-old presence on Pune political map erased

PUNE: The district's deep connections to the Congress since the 1880s were uprooted on Saturday after the party failed to win a single seat in the assembly poll.
The Congress in Pune city has given leaders and statesmen like Lokmanya Tilak long before independence. Representatives from the city dominated the post-independence era with Kakasaheb Gadgil, Vithhalrao Gadgil, and Suresh Kalmadi holding ministerial berths in Union govts.
The party has been on the slide in the last two decades in the city but its presence was felt in the district with MLAs like Sangram Thopte from Bhor who held the fort even during the Narendra Modi wave in 2014.
In 2019, along with Thopte, Sanjay Jagtap of the party won from Purandar. Both their losses on Saturday wiped out the Congress's representation from Pune in the state assembly.
The party went into the election on Nov 20 with three sitting MLAs, including Thopte and Jagtap and Ravindra Dhangekar who won the Kasba Peth assembly bypoll in March 2023.
Thopte's loss not only weakens his family's political legacy but also signifies a bleak future for the Congress in the area, especially given Ajit Pawar's dominance in rural Pune.
Thopte's father, Anantrao, who has now retired from active politics due to age, was once a formidable force in the rural belt. He was in consideration for the chief minister's position due to his contributions to the party in the district, particularly when NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar was a dominant figure.
Pawar dealt a significant blow to Anantrao Thopte at the height of his political career when his candidate, Kashinath Khutwad, defeated him in 1999. Thopte regained his seat in 2004 before vacating it for his son in 2009. From then on, until 2024, Sangram has maintained control over the constituency. But, this time he suffered a notable defeat that too from a newcomer.
"The Congress depended on external help to get their candidates elected. The party's cadre should have been more active. Civic elections have not been held in the state for a long time which adversely impacted the active participation of the workers in political circles and citizens. This too played a key role in distancing the voters from the party," Prakash Pawar, a senior political analyst, said.
Senior Congress leader Ulhas Pawar said it was disheartening to see the decline of the party in Pune where many leaders made it nationally and left their mark on the country's political history.
"Such a massive decline in vote share in the MVA in six months after the Lok Sabha poll is unconvincing and there is room for suspicion about the election machinery. The results are surprising and need introspection on all fronts," Pawar added.
Anant Gadgil, a former MLC and spokesperson, said that keeping party loyalists away from the process has hampered the overall performance of the party in Pune.
"More participation of Congressmen who have been with the party should have been promoted before and during the poll. It was missing, which gave a wrong message to the cadre and party workers stayed away from the election process," he said.
According to sources in the party, along with the discontent in its members and loyalists, rebellion in Parvati and Shivajinagar seats adversely impacted its chances.

According to Congress workers, the party has many historical connections with Pune. The prominence of leaders was such in yesteryears that the party's first session was to be held here in December 1885. It was shifted to Mumbai following an outbreak of plague
The Congress Bhavan in Shivajinagar is one of the oldest political party offices in the city. Former Prime Ministers late Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narsimha Rao and Morarji Desai, and Manmohan Singh have visited it
The Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar too had a long-term connection with the Congress Party and spent his formative years in the party before splitting in 1999
(With inputs from Sandip Dighe)