In yet another instance of rebellion, around 300 Shiv Sena members resigned on Wednesday while one candidate is contesting independently from the prominent Kasba constituency. Sena workers in Pune city are struggling to stay relevant as not a single candidate from the party got a ticket for the state polls.

All eight seats in Pune city — Kasba, Parvati, Hadapsar, Kothrud, Shivajinagar, Wadgoansheri, Khadakwasla, and Cantonment, have been given to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates. The parties were not in an alliance during the 2014 polls and BJP's Girish Bapat had won for the fifth time, while Sena's Prakash Bedhe got around 9,000 votes. Since Bapat's election to the Lok Sabha, the seat had been vacant.