Mayuresh Wanjale, son of MNS's late Khadakwasla MLA Ramesh Wanjale, has been declared as the official candidate Khadakwasla Assembly Constituency.

He has been preparing to contest the upcoming assembly elections from the Khadakwasla constituency and is actively campaigning for this purpose.

Additionally, candidates from Kothrud and Hadapsar a Khadakwasla Assembly Constituencies announced along withs everal other seats in state.

Sainath Babar: Hadapsar

Kishor Shinde: Kothrud

Who was Ramesh Wanjale?

His father Ramesh Wanjale was elected from Khadakwasla constituency in the 2009 Assembly elections. He was the first legislator of the Raj Thackeray-led party to be elected from Pune city. A popular figure among the party workers, Wanjale was known for his penchant for wearing gold ornaments that earned him the nickname of “gold man” in the political circles here. He died due to amssive heart attack in 2011. His wife, Harshada Wanjale, contested from the NCP in the bypoll. However, in a major setback to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, BJP candidate Bhimrao Tapkir won the Khadakwasla assembly bypoll in Pune district, defeating NCP candidate Harshada Wanjale. Ajit Pawar was instrumental in bringing Harshada Wanjale into the NCP fold a day ahead of the bypoll. Tapkir won by the margin of 3,625 votes.

Interesting battle in Khadakwasla now

Mayuresh has been meeting citizens for the past several days, and now the contest in the assembly will be interesting.

The Khadakwasla constituency is composed of 70 percent urban and 30 percent rural areas. Bhimrao Tapkir is the sitting MLA from the BJP in Khadakwasla, and Sachin Dodke from Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party is also interested in contesting against him. However, the BJP has not announced its candidate for the constituency; it is likely that the seat will go to the Ajit Pawar group. Soon, the names of candidates from other parties will be announced for this constituency.

Looking at Khadakwasla, sources say there is internal opposition to Tapkir in the party. Sule has also managed to get more votes than Sunetra in five of the six assembly segments, including Ajit Pawar’s Baramati Town. However, it was only in the BJP stronghold of Khadakwasla that the NCP (SP) leader trailed by around 21,000 votes.

In Khadakwasla, many posters are appearing before the Model Code of Conduct, the most prominent of which are those by former Pune mayor Dattatray Dhankawade, currently with the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Others include BJP leaders Deepak Nagapure and Manjusha Nagapure. The name of Rupali Chakankar was also in the news; however, it seems she is out of the race, especially after her second appointment as the chief of the state women's commission. Deepak Nagpure, Dilip Vede Patil, Haridas Charvad, and Prasanna Jagtap in Khadakwasla are also interested in contesting from the area for the party.