Overview
- Sharing a stage for the first time since the 2023 NCP split, Ajit Pawar and Supriya Sule released a common PMC/PCMC platform limited to these elections despite their opposing state and national alignments.
- The manifesto promises free PMPML bus and Pune Metro travel, a property-tax waiver for homes up to 500 sq ft, and free tablets for students, alongside daily tap water and pothole-free roads.
- Specific civic pledges include completing 33 missing road links, building hospitals within a two‑kilometre radius, and establishing a dedicated cancer hospital and a burns ward, plus incentives for eco‑friendly housing societies.
- Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil criticised the free‑travel pledge as deceptive, arguing such schemes need state approval and questioning funding and the municipal authority to implement them.
- Elections to 29 municipal corporations, including PMC, PCMC and BMC, are set for January 15 with counting on January 16, as fluid local realignments such as the Ambernath power shift keep post‑poll equations in focus.