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Ex-bureaucrat Dharmadikari joins the fray in Pune

Bureaucrat-turned-politician Avinash Dharmadhikari will contest as an Independent candidate from the Pune Lok Sabha constituency.

Dharmadhikari, who had worked as deputy secretary to Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, said he had been contemplating this decision for quite some time and has now finally made up his mind.

One of the claimants -- along with former BJP MP Anna Joshi and city unit president Pradeep Rawat -- for the BJP's Pune ticket, he said he would contest the election irrespective of what the BJP or Anna Joshi decide.

''I want to make certain points in politics'', and accordingly "I have taken the decision to contest the Pune seat," he said.

Anna Joshi -- who was denied the BJP nomination in 1996 and even this time since the party has decided to support former Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi from Pune -- has already resigned from the party and announced his candidature as an Independent.

The Pune Lok Sabha constituency is thus likely to witness a multi- cornered contest between the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance backed Suresh Kalmadi as an Independent, Vithal Thupe (Congress), dalit poet Namdeo Dhasal (Dalit Panther), Anna Joshi (Independent) and Dharmadhikari (Independent).

UNI

EARLIER REPORTS:
Anna Joshi quits BJP
Sena-BJP to support Kalmadi, but only if he damns Cong, Pawar in writing

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