India, Dec. 16 -- Nine years after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar's decades-long dominance over the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) was broken for the first time by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017, the stakes are once again high for Ajit Pawar as the civic body goes to polls next month after a prolonged gap.

In 2017, the BJP wrested power from the NCP to raise its tally from just three seats in 2012 to 77, emerging as the single largest party. Barely days left for 2026 and the BJP has further consolidated its position in the industrial township, with two of the three assembly constituencies-Chinchwad and Bhosari-currently represented by BJP MLAs even as Pimpri remains with the NCP.

To counter t...